
Class L t j \.u u 

Book , ,:_:: 

Copyright N^ 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



MANAGEMENT 
AND METHODS 



FOR- 



RURAL AND VILLAGE TEACHERS 



Thomas E. Sanders 



THE CLAUDE J. BELL COMPANY 

NASHVILLE :: :: TENNESSEE 



OCT, 20 m^ 



^^if' 



COPYRIGHTED 1903 

BY 

THOMAS E. SANDERS 



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PREFACE 

Teachers in rural and village schools have 
problems of then: own. They often have all 
grades to teach, and many times have a crowded 
room with few facihties for teaching. Most 
books on School Management and on Methods 
of Teaching have been written from the view- 
point of the model school or the city system, 
and contain much that is impractical in the 
rural or the village school where ideal conditions 
do not exist. ** Management and Methods*' 
was written to help rural and village teachers. 
It embraces nine years' experience in these 
schools, corrected and modified by several years 
of deeper study and broader experience. 

It will,^ we beUeve, be found at all times 
pleading f:r good common sense in the school- 
room, and for work and study and planning on 
the part of the teacher. The suggestions will 
be found helpful, we trust, to teachers, both 
old and young ; and if they are, the author will 
be satisfied. 



CONTENTS 

Management 

I. What Constitutes a Preparation for Teaching 9 

II. Some Qualities of a Good Teacher - - 14 

III. The Teacher in His Relation to the Community 20 

IV. The First Day - - - - - - 31 

V. The Program ------ 36 

VI. Grading a Rural School - - - - 39 

VII. The Course of Study - - _ . 45 

VIII. The Assignment of the Lesson - - - 52 

IX. The Recitation ----- 55 

X. Examinations - - - - - -60 

XL Reports ------- 65 

XII. Right Conditions for Teaching - - - 70 

XIII. Governing 'Power in the Teacher - - 80 

XIV. School Regulations . - - . _ 85 
XV. School Punishment ----- 89 

XVI. Movement of Classes - - - - - 96 

XVII. Basic Principles of Teaching - - - 102 

Methods 

XVIIL Reading 121 

XIX. Writing 135 

XX. Spelling 138 

XXI. Arithmetic 152 

XXII. Geography 174 



vi MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

XXIII. Language and Composition - " - - 187 

XXIV. Grammar ..-.-- 206 
XXV. Literature 217 

XXVI. History - 233 

XXVII. Civil Government -. - - - - 268 

^XVIII. Physiology 280 

XXIX. Scientific Temperance ----- 287 

XXX. Nature Study 306 









— 


MANAGEMENT 






i i 





I. WHAT CONSTITUTES A PREPARATION 
FOR TEACHING? 

The old thought was that any one could teach school. 
We sometimes fear that a little of that sentiment still 
remains. Schools are not always allotted according to 
merit. In many places all applicants holding a license 
are considered equally meritorious. Fortunate indeed, 
then, is the community if they have a level-headed, dis- 
criminating county superintendent or examiner who has 
plenty of courage. He should discriminate. The sys- 
tem of written examination cannot be dispensed with, yet 
one can judge as well of a teacher's qualifications and 
ability as a teacher, from examining a list of questions 
he has prepared for the examination of his own pupils, 
as from examining a list of answers he has prepared for 
a series of questions. 

But what constitutes a preparation for teaching? 

/. A Knozvledge of the Subject Taught. — This is 
the first qualification. We cannot expect good results 
from blind teaching. There is a margin between a teach- 
er's teaching limit and his knowledge of the subject. 
No teacher can lead a class successfully up to his own 
mental horizon in a subject. It may be an excellent 
thing for the teacher to have a class almost as strong as 
he is in a subject, but it is often hard on the class. His 
instruction will be fragmentary. It will have a piece-mea) 
appearance, and be given in broken doses. 

The teacher should be at least four years in advance 
9 



10 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

of his class. In the common school, he should have 
at least a high school education, and the high school 
teacher should have at least a college education. 

This will give margin enough to teach successfully 
and give correct perspective. The teacher who has never 
thought beyond his course of study cannot give the parts 
of subjects their relative importance. When a boy in 
the district school, we omitted the whole subject of con- 
jugation of the verb. Our teacher said it " did not 
amount to anything." Later in the study of a foreign 
language I found that it did amount to much, and my 
teacher — an excellent man — would have found the 
same had his horizon been broader. The broader the 
mental horizon of the teacher, provided he has good com- 
mon sense, the better the school he will teach. 

When I place knowledge of the subject taught as the 
first qualification of the teacher, I mean not only the 
student's knowledge, but the teacher's knowledge also. 
The last is broader and deeper. The teacher must be 
familiar with the principles of the subject and the logical 
relations of the different parts. He should have a clear 
bird's-eye view, not only of the subject as a whole, but 
of its relation to other subjects. This knowledge gives 
perspective, and corrects many errors resulting from 
shortsightedness. It makes plain the essential things 
which need emphasis, and without which other things 
cannot be properly understood. 

Many young teachers are quite successful even when 
they keep but a few weeks ahead of their class in some 
of the advance subjects. But this is due to enthusiasm 
rather than ripe scholarship. However far in advance 
of the class the teacher may be, it is absolutely essential 
that he review and plan each lesson carefully. If choice 



PREPARATION FOR TEACHING 11 

must be made between a young teacher who has but a 
student's knowledge of the subject but is active and grow- 
ing intellectually, and one who has a wider and deeper 
scholarship but has ceased to grow, the choice would be 
unquestionably the one who is still growing. Fossils 
may be interesting and instructive enough to the geologist, 
but they have no place in the teacher's chair. 

2. A Knozvledge of Mind and the Laws of Mental 
Growth. — The teacher must deal, above all else, with 
mind. There can be no substitute, and there are definite 
laws of mental growth. It is essential, then, that the 
teacher shall have studied and become familiar with the 
laws of that which he is to develop. He should be ac- 
quainted with general psychology. However, the teacher 
is not so much concerned with the problems and strange 
psychic phenomena as with the laws of mind growth. 
Educational psychology — the psychology needed by the 
teacher — bears the same relation to general psychology 
that a longitudinal section of a plant does to a cross section. 
The teacher is not. concerned with the present state of 
the mind as much as how it came into this state. It is 
the laws of growth which he needs to understand. The 
trained teacher should understand the laws of mental 
growth until he knows what notes to strike in order to 
produce proper mental harmony. This marks the differ- 
ence between the teacher prepared for his work and the 
untrained teacher. One knows what to do, or at least 
recognizes a discord, while the other does not. It is 
the difference between skilled and unskilled labor. The 
most costly labor in the world is unskilled labor, and how 
much more so when its product must be immortal mind. 
The teacher carves not in stone and marble, but in mind 



12 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

and spirit. His product endures not for a day or a year, 
but for eternity. 

J. A Knowledge of Educational Methods and Aims. — 
The history of education teaches some valuable lessons. 
Each age and people has had its view of life. This view 
has been expressed in its educational methods and aims. 
The end of education as judged by a people or an individ- 
ual gives coloring to the whole process of education. The 
teacher who has the broadest and most intimate acquaint- 
ance with educational ideals of different ages and peoples, 
has the best criterion for his own work. He has his own 
ideal, the ripened fruit of all the rest, seasoned and cor- 
rected by the experience of the ages. Such an ideal is 
the best specific against the fads and follies which occa- 
sionally flood our educational field. A teacher thus armed 
can find the wheat among the chaff, and is less liable 
to follow fad and fashion to the detriment of the child. 

4. A Knowledge of School-room Administration. — 
This may come from experience in the school-room, but 
without forethought it may be a costly experience to 
both teacher and pupil. Perhaps more teachers fail in 
this than in any other particular. They fail from two 
causes, — lack of knowledge of what to do and how to do 
it, or from trying to adopt an elaborate system without 
any adjustment to the conditions of the particular school. 
Like John Lock's Grand Model, it may be too grand to 
suit the conditions. 

Good common sense is an essential quality of the 
teacher, and it will dictate the folly of adoption and the 
wisdom of adaption. System is necessary, but not red 
tape. The ability to govern and conduct a school is 
largely a matter of system, knowing how and what to do, 



PREPARATION FOR TEACHING 13 

and doing it promptly and orderly. This is why the ex- 
perienced teacher, if he has not ceased to grow, is to be 
preferred to the inexperienced. Experience counts more 
in the administrative work of the school-room than any- 
where else, and next to experience comes a careful study 
of the principles and conditions underlying the work and 
the experience of others. 



II. SOME QUALITIES OF A GOOD TEACHER 

A FEW years ago an institute conductor gave an alpha- 
betical list of the qualities of a good teacher. He named 
twenty-five, all good ones, and expressed his regret that 
he could not think of a quality the spelling of which be- 
gan with the letter x. He did not exhaust the list, be- 
cause it would be no trouble to find two or more desirable 
qualities which would begin with the same letter. But 
there are some which stand out so pre-eminently and 
are so essential to the teacher after whom the boys and 
girls, the most priceless product of the State, will in- 
evitably pattern their lives, that they cannot be ignored. 

I. Good Character. — I should place this quality at 
the head of the list, and I mean by it all the two words 
express by either denotation or connotation. If our 
teachers are to guide and train for future life, the highest 
and noblest characters are none too good as models. The 
teacher frequently is and always should be the pupil's 
ideal. How necessary, then, that this ideal be a worthy 
one. 

I remember well my own experience. I was be- 
tween fifteen and sixteen years old. My teacher was a 
young man, college bred, and to me the highest type of 
perfect manhood. His dress was neat ; he always ap- 
peared well groomed ; he had the many little easy graces 
which accompany culture. I admired him, and both con- 
sciously and unconsciously modeled after him. The term 
closed, and he left the neighborhood. Two years later 

14 



QUALITIES OP A GOOD T BACH BR 16 

I met him. I had grown, and I met him no longer as a 
pupil but as an equal. I shall never forget the meeting. 
We lunched together, and I never heard more unnec- 
essary oaths come from a man in the same length of time 
in my life. Have you ever known what it is to have your 
faith brushed away in an instant? I was adrift on life's 
sea. It was a dangerous period. Loss of faith in the 
individual causes loss of faith in humanity, and I beHeve 
that condition will take a man as near Inferno as any- 
thing can in this life. Faith in humanity must be reached 
through faith in the individual, and it was some years 
before I reached it again, before I found others in whom 
I had perfect confidence. With this experience you may 
see why I place this quality of the teacher — character — 
above all others. 

I am older now. In choosing a teacher for myself, I 
would care less for his personal character than his schol- 
arship and skill ; but for teachers for our immature boys 
and girls, let me insist that character, character of the 
purest type, character which will stand the full sunlight 
and the strongest lens without showing a flaw, shall be 
one of the first qualities of the teacher. 

There is another quality so closely allied to this that 
I shall speak of it under the same heading, and that is 
reputation. Character is what a man is; reputation is 
what a man is thought to be. Men and women are often 
misjudged. The tongue of scandal will wag, and the 
minds of some persons are of such fiber that they are 
quick to listen to evil suggestions. The teacher's in- 
fluence for good in a district may be destroyed by a bad 
reputation, whether deserved or undeserved. Teachers 
must live such lives that they will be above suspicion, 
and then both reputation and character are secure. 



16 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

I am tempted here to speak a word of warning to 
young teachers, even at the expense of making this sec- 
tion long. Above all, be men and women, and even then 
one must forego some things. I have known young 
men to lose their power for good in a district by giving 
too much attention to a favorite pupil, or the sister of 
some pupil of the school, on Sunday afternoons. I have 
known lady teachers to lose the respect of the people and 
their opportunity of doing good in the neighborhood by 
too late hours and consequent languid moroseness in 
school next day. Patrons are critical, and young teach- 
ers — teachers whose reputations are not pretty well 
established in the district — must forego some of these 
pleasures, or pay the price, which is frequently costly 
enough. Be sociable without being frivolous; be talk- 
ative without being pert ; be friendly without being famil- 
iar. Mind your own business, and remember a good 
listener is often more entertaining than a great talker. 
Keep your character unquestioned, and look to your 
reputation, for without these you had far better leave the 
school-room. 

2. Scholarly Habits. — The teacher should be awake 
to all things about him. The attainments of a teacher 
are not so important as the habits of mind. Some of our 
best teachers are young men and women who are not 
yet mature, but they are growing, and have acquired that 
habit of mind which is essential to scholarship. 

He is thinking, investigating, growing — full of life 
and enthusiasm, and the spirit is contagious with his 
pupils. He is accurate in detail without being tiresome, 
and his pupils are trained in accuracy. He is growing, 
and looks to the future. He is not resting upon his 



QUALITIES OF A GOOD TEACHER 17 

laurels, but looking for reputation in the future, based 
upon his success now. His life is in his work. He is 
losing his life in his work, but he shall find it again in the 
future lives of his pupils. Were I choosing an institu- 
tion for myself or for the education of some one else, I 
should invariably choose an institution, a majority of 
whose faculty were young men. The success of David 
Starr Jordan, of Leland Stanford University, is due 
largely to his insight into the possibilities of men. He, 
in two institutions, has consequently drawn about him 
faculties composed of comparatively young men, who 
have made themselves and the institutions famous. 
Growing mind alone can teach. 

J. Love and Sympathy. — No teacher is fit for the 
school-room unless he has a genuine love for children 
and young people. No sadder sight can be seen than a 
long-faced pessimist in the school-room. Talk about 
cruelty to animals, what can be more cruel than to keep 
children from five to seven hours a day in the chilling, 
blighting influence of a teacher long since dead to the 
beauty of nature and' the buoyancy of healthy childhood, 
firmly convinced that children are totally depraved ? Age 
does not mark this condition ; it is often found at thirty, 
and is many times absent at sixty. 

The teachers of our children should be full of health, 
hope, sunshine, and good cheer. They must enlist the 
good will and sympathy of the young. Pupils should 
look to them, not as masters to drive them and to exact 
penalties, but as friendly companions and leaders, with 
strength of character enough to hold respect, — teachers 
who inspire, guide, and direct the pupils to higher and 
nobler things, — teachers who have learned to see and 

2 



18 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

to appreciate the beauties of nature and the power to 
lead pupils to do the same, ever looking upward, lifting 
upward, and pointing to higher things. 

4. Sincerity. — The teacher must love his work, be- 
lieve in it, and at heart have a burning desire to help 
young people. Gushing and lip service will not count. 
Boys and girls must know that the teacher has their 
welfare at heart. The sincere teacher is in no hurry to 
leave the building if there is a pupil who needs help. T 
can judge a teacher by the way the pupils cluster about 
him at playtime. The primary teacher may be known by 
the circle of children about her at recess, and the group 
who wait to go home as she does. 

The sincere teacher also will be found at teachers' 
meetings and associations, and on time. He will take 
pride in his professional library and be alive to educa- 
tional progress. He will take and read educational jour- 
nals and magazines, and frequently be found at summer 
schools and in graduate study in colleges and universi- 
ties. A catalogue from one college states that every 
member of the faculty is a graduate of the college, and 
each member has taught in the institution not less than 
ten years. They might add that not one of them has done 
advanced work in any institution in the same length 
of time, and that for some years the attendance has 
decreased. The cause is not hard to find. There is such 
a disease as dry rot even in educational institutions. 

5. Worthy Ambition, — I pity the school where the 
teacher has reached his highest ambition. He may be 
content, but if he has no higher aspirations, he is very apt 
to let things drag. I read not long since of a teacher who 
had taught thirty years in the same district school, and 



QUALITIES OF A GOOD TEACHER 19 

I wondered what kind of men and women were in his 
neighborhood. Such might have been for the best, but 
I doubt it. A middle-aged man applied for the super- 
intendency of a town school, stating that for ten years 
he had been principal of a two-roomed building in a little 
country town. The secretary of the board replied that 
they did not care for a man who was without am- 
bition. It is sometimes said a rolling stone gathers no 
moss, but the best teachers are not desirous of becoming 
mosshacks. 

The teacher who is ambitious enough to improve, and 
who seeks to do his best in order to advance in his pro- 
fession, will kindle more ambition in the lives of his 
pupils and make higher types of men and women. 



HI. THE TEACHER IN HIS RELATION TO 
THE COMMUNITY 

The: teacher's relation to the community has much 
to do with his influence as a teacher. It is necessary to 
the success of the school that the teacher be well thought 
of. The teacher who can adapt himself quickest to con- 
ditions, who can see these in the broadest light and 
comprehend them best, is the most successful teacher. 
Adaptability without loss of individuality is a wonder- 
ful power. It is one of the qualities essential in the 
successful statesman or diplomat, as well as the success- 
ful teacher. 

Teachers often desire to free themselves from all 
but school-room duties. This would make their tasks 
lighter and life easier, but unfortunately, when this is 
done, they curtail their power for good in the community 
and their usefulness in the school-room. They must mix 
with the people. In the rural and village schools the 
teacher who leads the life of the recluse, however pro- 
ficient in the school-room, however scholarly he may be, 
however closely he applies himself to his profession, loses 
his opportunity for good, and nine times out of ten 
is treated with neglect if not with contempt by the 
people of the community. 

Time after time the strongest students of a class in 
the college or the university — the thinkers of the class 
— go out and make failures in schools; while the slow, 
plodding students, those who were only mediocre in their 
classes, in fact sometimes the dummies of the class, 

20 



TEACHER'S RELATION TO COMMUNITY 21 

go into similar positions and are almost idolized by the 
people, and in turn do really more for the community 
than the more brilliant students. We wonder at this, 
and think the people are unappreciative of true worth ; 
we rail at it and speak of success as a mere matter of 
chance, when frequently it is only the power of adapta- 
tion of the person to the position, or because he is a 
good mixer with the people. 

The primary duty of the teacher is to educate. It 
often happens that the citizens of the district need teach- 
ing as much as the children if not more ; but this requires 
even greater skill than teaching children. " You must 
teach as if you taught them not." Such a community 
can be reached and influenced only by the teacher who 
can meet and mingle with them, and become one of their 
number. He must seem to be on an equal with every 
man, and yet possess enough natural dignity and ability 
to be none the less a leader. He must be able to adapt 
himself to circumstances, and discreet enough to keep out 
of factional fights and neighborhood broils without being 
accused of trying ^' to carry water on both shoulders." 

The rocks upon which so many schools are wrecked 
are religion and politics. Perhaps nothing touches the 
prejudices quicker or cuts deeper than these two things, 
and many districts would require diplomats indeed to 
steer clear of one or the other. 

A principal of a public school was wanted. The 
board wrote : '' We want a good, all-round school man 
who expects to make teaching a profession. We want a 
married man between twenty-five and thirty-five years 
old, one who has had experience in keeping boarders, 
etc." A man thirty-one years old applied. He was an 
able school man, and had never thought of anything but 



22 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

teaching for a life work. He was a graduate of a normal 
school, a State university of high standing, and had had 
three years' experience in boarding. They replied, " We 
like your record. Come and see us." He wrote saying 
he did not care to visit them unless they were pretty 
sure they wanted him. They wired, " li you want the 
place, come." He went. He met the board and made 
a good impression. They asked what his church relations 
were, and he told them. They then said no one but a 

could have the place, as there were three churches 

in the town, and they always allotted the schools among 
the different denominations. He didn't want it under the 
conditions. He arrived home with less money, but more 
experience, and they employed another teacher. 

No teacher worthy the name will inject his secta- 
rianism into his public school work or be a political par- 
tisan in the school-room. When voting time comes, he 
will vote ; he will worship as he pleases, and further than 
this it is no man's business. The teacher, however, is 
not the man to argue politics at the post-office, or discuss 
baptism at the corner grocery. 

The stronger the teacher's hold on the community, 
the easier his school -work. A father or a mother in 
five minutes' opposition to the plans of a teacher, can tear 
down more than the teacher can build up in a week. If 
the teacher has the hearty support of the parents, it is 
an easy matter to secure the co-operation and approval 
of the children. Without the support of the parents, he 
is almost powerless, so far as lasting good is concerned, 
with the children. 

The teacher must stand for all that is best in a com- 
munity. His life should be above reproach. He must 
be a man among men, always ready to help, and yet never 



TEACHER'S RELATION TO COMMUNITY 23 

seeming to push himself to the front. He should know 
when to speak, and what to say, and when to keep still. 
A teacher is not heard for his much speaking, but for 
the weight and common sense of his words. 

Above all, the teacher should stand for better schools. 
He should defend them against unjust attacks, whether 
prompted by ignorance or malice. He should be able 
to show to the average man the reason and the justifica- 
tion for the money spent in the school. This should be 
done at opportune times, and effectively. If the teacher 
cannot plead earnestly and effectively the cause of the 
school, who can? 

There are a few things especially which the teacher 
must sometimes defend. In some neighborhoods the 
schools — the public schools — are looked upon as pauper 
schools, or at least schools for the poor. Such an in- 
sinuation is enough to make his face flush and his blood 
tingle. 

I first heard it from a wealthy physician of New York, 
a man who had received his education in a college pri- 
vately endowed, aild for whose maintenance the contribu- 
tion box was passed at regular intervals, and to which 
poor widows who washed for a living contributed a far 
larger per cent, oi their earnings than many of the richly 
perfumed in the ftont pews did to the entire collections 
for the year. And yet this self-respecting, hypercritically- 
pious doctor would turn up his nose at maintaining a 
state university, and declared his children should never 
go to the public school to associate with every Tom, 
Dick, and Harry of the neighborhood. Perhaps no better 
indictment could be given against his own training. The 
best lesson his children may ever learn is when they 
measure themselves with the washerwoman's children, 



24 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

and it dawns on them that they, and not the latter, are 
found wanting. He did not seem to consider himself a 
partaker of charity when he received his mail at Uncle 
Sam's post-office, or took a trip on the river made navi- 
gable by Uncle Sam's locks and dams. 

It is the duty of the state to educate, not simply the 
poor, but all. Her schools, like other institutions, are 
for all alike, and the patron of the public school is no 
more a pauper for that reason than he is a pauper for 
patronizing the public post-office, traveling along a public 
road, drinking from a public fountain, or standing be- 
neath a public arc lamp. 

There are some things the public can do more effi- 
ciently than any individual can do them. Every man, 
woman, and child is benefited by good public schools, the 
bachelor and the childless family as well as the family 
with children. 

I went with an Oklahoma man not long ago to 
look at a farm. He was a man of means. He liked the 
land ; he saw in it future possibilities, and all that. He 
later passed the school building where his children must 
go to school should he buy it. He told me the next day 
he could not think of buying a farm where such school 
facilities existed, and said that five dollars an kcre, or 
an increase in price of $1,500 for the farm, would not 
stand in the way five minutes were there good schools. 
And many a farm would be increased twenty to fifty per 
cent, in market value if good public schools, with long 
terms and well-qualified teachers, were near them. 

The other insinuation that should stir the teacher is 
that the people are not able to support the schools. This 
principle is almost axiomatic. A people cannot he pau- 
perized by local taxes applied to local purposes. There 



TEACHER'S RELATION TO COMMUNITY 25 

is very little of the school tax that ever leaves the com- 
munity. The teacher is nearly always of the community, 
and in fact is too often one of the immediate locality. 
The expenses of getting the wood and doing all kinds of 
work takes no money from the community. If the teacher 
does not live in the district, he boards there, and takes 
very little money away. 

When the cry in 1898 came from Cuba to come over 
and help them, no one said we were too poor to do it. 
Compare the money spent in the Spanish-American War 
fighting Spain with the money we spend yearly fighting 
ignorance and training young people for future useful- 
ness. 

There is hardly an American but takes pride in our 
growing navy. When a great warship is launched, it is 
a thrilling event to the nation. But do you stop to think 
that the cost of one of these vessels, made as a destruct- 
ive object whose whole purpose is to destroy life and 
property, would perhaps maintain your state university 
for years ? Its cost would have paid the expenses of hun- 
dreds of boys through the whole university course. And 
think what it would mean to the state to locate perma- 
nently within her borders each year a few hundred well- 
trained university men. Are we to listen without pro- 
test to the puny cry that the state is not financially able 
to educate her people? 

Another charge the teacher must sometimes meet is the 
cost of books and equipment to the parents. Fanned by 
petty politicians for political effect, the idea prevails in 
many places that teachers, school officials, and publishers 
are in league to rob the parents, while the truth is, many 
of the noisiest parents spend more for toys and knick- 
nacks for their children during the year than for school 



26 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

books. Complaining of the cost of books is more a habit 
than anything else. An incident of actual occurrence 
illustrates this fact. 

A father was buying a fourth reader for his boy. 
The price was only forty cents. In his effort to get the 
book for less he bemeaned vehemently every one who had 
anything to do with the schools, from the publisher down, 
declaring they were breaking him up buying books. He 
bought it, and in less than ten minutes bought three ten- 
cent plugs of tobacco and gave the boy one, and did 
not question the price. The teacher should know the ex- 
act amount of money required to buy a complete set of 
books for the school course. This divided by the num- 
ber of years in the course, will give figures which will 
silence most complaints. 

The teacher, too, must know the value of an education 
to the individual. To the person who is educated, whose 
mind is trained to appreciate the beauty and harmony 
about him, who can understand the deeper meanings of 
life, education has an infinite value. To him education 
is life ; it has no money value. 

No intelligent person would think of placing a 
money value and a money value alone on an education. 
But the teacher must deal with men as they are, many 
of whom cannot reason except in dollars and cents. He 
must be able to present the value of an education in terms 
which they can understand. The music of a master would 
be lost on a Fiji Islander, while he would listen and 
be charmed by the beating of a tin pan. The teacher 
must show that every dollar spent on education in a com- 
munity returns a hundred cents plus golden dividends, 
to that community, or else his argument is lost. No 



TEACHER'S RELATION TO COMMUNITY 27 

task is easier. The best homes, the finest farms, the most 
improved stock and fruits and grains, and all that marks 
progress and civilization, is found among the most intelli- 
gent, best-educated people. The great commercial na- 
tions of the world are those which spend most on 
education. Ignorant people have little to sell and no 
desire to buy. The best investment of any community is 
in the education of its citizens. 

The teacher must be able to point out to the parents 
and the pupils the value of an education to the individ- 
ual. Here, too, he must be able to speak in terms which 
they can understand. It is estimated that the average 
wages of illiterate persons in the United States is less 
than $300 a year. Assuming the earning period of a 
man's life to be from the time he is twenty until he is 
sixty, or forty years, what is the worth in money to his 
family or to the state? Evidently, $12,000. Courts in 
damage suits award upon earning capacity. The aver- 
age wages of persons having a common-school education 
in the United States is estimated at $400 a year. His 
worth in money from the time he is twenty until he is 
sixty, therefore, is $16,000. The money value to the 
state between the illiterate man and the man with a com- 
mon-school education is $4,000. What makes the differ- 
ence ? Eight years' schooling of six months to the year, 
— call it fifty months for good measure. What is it 
worth a month for the boy to be in school ? Eighty dol- 
lars a month, four dollars a day ! How often have you 
known the boy to be kept at home for months at a time 
to run errands or hoe in the crops, when his earning 
power could not be more than fifty cents a day? If 
there is a crime greater than highway robbery, it is rob- 
bery of children and innocents. 



28 MANAGBMBNT AND METHODS 

Drive home to parents and pupils the value of 
a high-school training. The average earning power of 
high-school graduates in the United States, taking the 
high school to mean that large list of secondary schools 
whose graduates will be accepted in the standard colleges 
and universities, is estimated at $600 a year. The money 
value of the high-school graduate from twenty to sixty 
is $24,000, an increase of $8,000 over those with a com- 
mon-school education. What makes the difference? 
Four years' study of nine months each, — count it forty 
months, — and it is worth $200 a month to the boy, or $10 
a day, to be in the high school. I have known the very 
brightest of earnest boys to be taken out of high school 
by niggardly parents to take jobs at $10 a month. 

Let us carry this a little further, and the figures may 
interest the teachers themselves. The average earning 
power of the graduates of standard colleges and univer- 
sities in the United States is $1,000 a year, or $40,000 
for the forty years of one's active life. This is an in- 
crease of $16,000 over the high-school graduate. What 
makes the difference? Less than forty months' study. 
What is it worth to the individual in money per month, 
assuming that he is at least of average capacity? It is 
worth $400 per month, $20 per day ; and yet how many 
will turn from the university forever for a forty-dollar- 
a-month job ! 

Study the value of an education, — the money value 
as well as the higher, — and be able to drive home facts 
and figures to the average business man in a business 
manner, and to your pupils and patrons, and more boys 
will remain in high school and leave it for the university 
course. More money will be voted for the schools, and 
better salaries paid. 



TEACHER'S RELATION TO COMMUNITY 



29 



The teacher who is alive to his opportunities will leave 
a lasting impress upon the community in which he 
teaches. 

In conclusion we would give the following advice to 
strengthen the teacher's influence in the community : — 

1. Let the teacher be a man or a woman in the best 
sense of the term, frank, honest, just, discreet, with con- 
victions upon school matters, but with common sense 
enough to see what can be done and what cannot, and 
tact enough to lead without seeming to do so. 

2. Above all things, let him be himself. Nothing is 
more detestable than the man who courts popularity. 
However, the teacher must cultivate the qualities which 
would make him agreeable to most people, and prune 
those qualities which would be disagreeable. 

3. Cultivate breadth, liberality, and discreetness in 
matters of religion and politics. Be a man, with the 
opinions and convictions of a man, but learn to think 
and keep your mouth shut on partisan matters. 

4. Get acquainted with the people, especially the pa- 
rents. Do not wait for them to hunt you up and make 
your acquaintance. That might be good etiquette, but 
the chances are sixteen to one it would not work success- 
fully in your community. The teacher is expected to 
lead in getting acquainted. 

5. Be able to defend the cause of education, and to 
make plain its value to the community and the individual. 
Speak at opportune times, and to thinking men, and make 
your plea strong enough to carry conviction with it. 

6. Listen respectfully to everybody's advice, then do 
as you please. 



30 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

7. Study human nature, and be able, if possible, to 
talk with intelligence to every man about his business or 
his interests. 

8. Attend church and Sunday-school, but don't be 
hypocritically pious. 

9. Last, but not least, put your best efforts into your 
school duties. Prepare your work, plan your lessons, be 
alert, study. Send your pupils home each day feeling 
that they have learned something during the day, and 
that it is good to be at school. This will do much to give 
you the good will of the community, and make your work 
pleasant and successful. 



IV. THE FIRST DAY 

Have you taught? Do you know the importance of 
the first day of a term ? Do you remember first days when 
you were a pupil? It is the most important day of the 
session. 

The first thing the pupil studies upon entering school 
is the teacher. Each pupil is anxious to see the new 
teacher, and the more daring ones are anxious to see 
just what he will do upon a given occasion. They make 
the occasion, and happy indeed is the teacher who ac- 
quits himself well. He is upon the high road to success 
in that school. 

SUGGESTIONS EOR THE l^IRST DAY. 

I. The teacher should be at his school two or three 
days before the opening, and select a good boarding 
place. By all means have a room to yourself. Econo- 
mize, but remember there is no economy in denying your- 
self all the comforts of home. It is usually best, when 
possible, to board with a family who have no children 
in school. The children are apt to grow too familiar, 
and think you just one of the family. Then, too, other 
children will be jealous, and apt to imagine you make 
pets of the children with whom you board. Select your 
boarding place, and get settled down so as to feel at 
home before the opening of school. Meet as many of 
the patrons as possible, and show an interest in their 
children. Ask their co-operation, and invite them to 
visit the school. Be careful about telling too many of 

31 



32 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

your plans, or promising just what you will do in regard 
to this or that. 

A few kind words, a frank, business-like manner, an 
interest in the children, or a little attention to baby 
brother, too small to attend school, if shown in a natural 
manner, will often win the good will of parents and open 
the hearts of the children to you. Such interest and 
attention, however, must be genuine on your part. Gush- 
ing or too much talk is dangerous. Be natural, be your- 
self, but be at your best. 

2. If your predecessor has left proper records, se- 
cure them, and study them thoroughly. These will give 
you the names of most of the pupils, their classes, the 
former program, and the point where each class should 
begin work. If you do not have proper records, get as 
much of this information as possible from some of the 
larger pupils. You can secure this by a little effort and 
questioning, and without the pupils' thinking strange of 
the inquiries. Be careful to discourage criticism either 
of pupils, former teacher, patrons, or methods. A little 
tact on your part will prevent you from hearing these 
things. 

3. From these records you can make all assignment 
of lessons, classification, etc. The former program may 
help you much in preparing your temporary program for 
the first day, or your permanent program for the term. 
Avoid radical changes. Accept the classification in all 
cases until pupils prove to you thoroughly that they are 
able to do advanced work. Too often pupils, fearing 
they will not be promoted at the end of the year, drop 
out of school a few weeks before the close of the term. 
Such pupils almost invariably insist on being promoted 
with their class at the beginning of the next year. Better 



THE FIRST DAY 33 

by far hold them a few weeks until they prove by class 
work and examination that they are competent for the 
advanced class. Pupils and parents should realize that 
a change of teachers does not mean an erasure of all 
records. 

4. See that the school-room and the school grounds 
are in good condition before the day for school to begin. 
This may not be exactly the teacher's duty, but it is apt 
to be neglected unless the teacher does it. There is a 
good time coming when teachers will not be expected to 
look after such things. Their work will be professional. 
In the more progressive districts the floors are scrubbed, 
the desks and windows cleaned, and the buildings and 
grounds placed in good condition by the school officials. 
This is right and proper, but if such duties fall upon 
the teacher, let him see to it that they are done, and done 
well, before the opening of school. The task will be no 
greater, and some one must do it. Such things must be 
done. It requires courage to teach school — courage 
enough to meet the indolent boy, angry parent, or igno- 
rant hobo without flinching, and tact enough to avoid a 
conflict. It requires grit enough also to tackle a fallen 
stove-pipe or a knotty stick of wood, if it becomes neces- 
sary. The school-room is no place for timid people who 
cannot meet emergencies, and those who cannot or will 
not do such little things when circumstances demand 
should steer clear of teaching. 

5. The teacher should spend much time in and about 
the building. The feeling of newness must be worn off. 
He should plan the seating and movement of classes, the 
entering and dismissing of pupils, and numerous other 
things, before the school opens. It is far better to con- 
sider these things carefully and decide them properly at 



34 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

the beginning of the term than to be obliged to make 
changes later. Have your plans well laid, and follow 
them from the first. 

6. Have everything planned for the first day and at 
your tongue's end. Have definite plans for each lesson 
in the different subjects. Study your predecessor's re- 
port carefully. Know just what each lesson is to be, 
and be able to point out the page and the paragraph with 
least possible loss of time. 

7. Have a preliminary program for the first day's 
work. Modify it later as occasion demands. 

8. Do not bore the pupils by a long list of " thou 
shalt nots." Great talkers are seldom great doers. The 
first day of school is a day to do rather than to talk. 
The philosophy of good school management is to give 
positive rather than negative commands. Give pupils 
something to do rather than forbid doing. " Do right " 
is the only rule of government necessary, and pupils un- 
derstand it without explanation or command. 

9. Be first on the ground. This is a good rule for 
every day. Be busy, be pleasant, be quiet, talk little, do 
much, be orderly in all things. 

10. Do not waste time the first morning getting the 
names and ages of pupils. Teachers often waste half an 
hour at this useless exercise. Nothing is a greater loss 
of time, unless it be the old-fashioned morning and 
evening roll-call. With one hundred and thirty-five 
pupils under my charge in the same room, if a single boy 
or girl was not in place at opening exercise, I knew who 
was absent. Get pupils at work the first morning in 
the shortest possible time. " Satan finds some mischief 
still for idle hands to do " — and idle minds also. Plan 



THE FIRST DAY 35 

to have every pupil at work within fifteen minutes after 
the bell rings. Carry out your plans. 

II. Have definite standards of conduct. Know what 
you expect to permit and what you do not. Permit no 
conduct the first day unless you expect to permit it all 
the time. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of 
cure. Many teachers make the fatal mistake of allowing 
almost any kind of conduct the first few days, thinking 
they will get the good will of pupils and that the pupils 
will settle down later. Nothing is a greater mistake. 
We respect those most who rule us best, if their rule is 
just and their methods good. No greater compliment to 
the teacher can be carried home by the pupils in the 
evening of the first day of school, and nothing which 
portends a more successful term, than the verdict, " He 
knows what he is doing, and means just what he says." 

What will be the verdict of your pupils ? 



V. THE PROGRAM 

Teiachers cannot attach too much importance to the 
daily program of study and recitation. It should be 
made a subject of careful thought. Too often the teacher 
writes out a program at random, and in the same slip- 
shod manner uses it for a whole term of school. In fact, 
some teachers do not give the least thought to the pro- 
gram until the morning they open their school term. 
Such negligence is inexcusable. There are many things 
to be considered in making a school program, among 
which are the following : — 

1. Children should be classified so the teacher will 
not have too many recitations. No teacher should have 
more than twenty recitations a day at most, and a less 
number if possible. This can be done, and yet the school 
be well graded by a judicious combination of subjects 
and classes. A strong third grade may do the work of 
a weak fourth grade in many subjects. Two or more 
grades may be frequently combined in spelling, geog- 
raphy, or history. 

2. The program must designate the time and order 
of study as well as of recitation. It is just as essential 
that a pupil be systematic in study as in recitation. When 
the time comes to study geography, let all other books 
be laid aside, and let the pupils of the class all study 
geography. Let the geographies be used, and let all 
other books and papers be placed in the desk, and the 
whole attention of the class be concentrated upon geog- 
raphy. The teachers who insist upon this will find it a 
great aid to discipline. 



THE PROGRAM 37 

3. Each pupil should recite at least once between 
intermissions. In nine tenths of our schools there is, 
besides the noon intermission, a short recess about the 
middle of the forenoon, and another about the middle 
of the afternoon, thus dividing the day into four periods. 
No class should be without a recitation in each of these 
periods. Young pupils get restless, and the change to 
the recitation rests them. Many teachers here make a 
mistake by having the primary pupils recite the first 
thing after recess. They are fresh, and can be kept 
busy more easily then than later. A better plan would 
be to have them recite later, after they have grown tired. 
The recitation then rests them. Make it a rule to have 
your largest, most restless class recite at those periods 
when they would be least apt to study quietly. 

4. The proper arrangement of a program requires 
a due regard for the sequence of subjects. Have the 
harder subject in those periods of the day when the 
minds of the pupils are in the best condition to study. 
Do not place two or three of the more difficult subjects 
in immediate succession. There is another thing almost 
universal in the arrangement of a program, and yet it 
is not always the best. It is that in nearly all schools 
pupils prepare the lesson immediately before the recita- 
tion of that lesson. They prepare arithmetic the hour 
just before they recite arithmetic, and so on. In many 
subjects the best time to prepare the advance lesson is 
immediately after the recitation of the lesson in that 
subject. New points have been explained in class, and 
new ideas received, which only need application to be- 
come firmly fixed in the pupil's mind. The pupils leave 
a good recitation filled with enthusiasm. This is the 
time to strike while the iron is hot. Many leave the 



38 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

recitation in algebra filled with thoughts of the binomial 
theorem, or anxious to try a new statement of a prob- 
lem, and reluctantly lay it aside while they turn to the 
dry roots of the Latin verb. When they come again 
to algebra, they do not have half the enthusiasm they 
had when the subject was laid aside, and do not accom- 
plish as much in the same time. Let the teachers of ad- 
vance grades especially consider this point in arranging 
their programs. 

5. The program should be planned with due regard 
to the importance of the different subjects taught. All 
subjects of the course are not of equal value. I knew 
a school not long ago where the eighth year devoted as 
much time to oral spelling as to any other subject. The 
study period was as long and the recitation period as 
long. If the class had been remarkably proficient in 
spelling, it would have been different, but I could not 
see that they were any better after having devoted all 
this time of the school course to spelling, than the 
average class. Having so much time in which to pre- 
pare their spelling lesson, they were led to sluggish 
mental habits. It is not the number of times a lesson is 
studied over, but the mental tension during the time 
of study, that counts. 

6. The length of the recitation period should be gov- 
erned by the subject and the number in the class. Some 
subjects require more time than others, to accomplish 
anything in the recitation. The recitation period for 
primary pupils should be short, not more than fifteen 
minutes. Make the recitation interesting, to the point, 
and secure the attention of each pupil, otherwise it is 
a failure in some degree. 



VI. GRADING A RURAL SCHOOL 

In all the more progressive States the rural and vil- 
lage schools are well graded. This is the next step in 
the educational progress of the remaining States. The 
time is ripe for organization. We need courses of study 
wisely planned, teachers who are competent to classify 
and grade schools and to follow and use courses of study 
intelligently. It will be a great saving of energy and 
bring wonderful results. A law giving State and countv 
superintendents the power to act, and making the com- 
pensation sufficient to get competent men, is needed. A 
county superintendent of good judgment and discretion 
— one with a backbone also — will accomplish wonders 
in his county. '* Peace hath her victories, no less than 
war," and a devout man with courage and ability can 
ofttimes render a service as great in building up the 
schools of his county as could be rendered on the field 
of battle. These victories of peace will give new life 
to coming generations. 

Why Grade Schools? 

1. It economizes the teacher's time. He can teach a 
class as well as an individual. 

2. It stimulates pupils to better work. 

3. It secures better and more regular attendance. 

4. It keeps pupils in school longer. 

5. It gives patrons a better standard to judge a child's 
progress. If there is ever an opportunity for the teacher 
to play the part of a charlatan and to ride a hobby, it 



40 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

is in an ungraded school, and this, too, to the everlasting 
detriment of the child. 

Hozv to Grade a School. — There are few greater 
tasks for the young teacher than to properly grade a 
school. Nowhere else does experience in teaching count 
for so much. A working knowledge of the graded sys- 
tem is very valuable. The greatest obstacle to grading 
the country schools, however, is the teachers who have 
taught in them for a number of years, and are so deep 
in the educational ruts and traditions of the old-time 
school that they have no faith in organization or grada- 
tion or anything different from what they are used to 
doing. When a boy, I heard old teachers croak them- 
selves hoarse declaring the country schools could not be 
graded, but almost every school in that State has been 
so closely graded now for more than a decade that a 
pupil leaving one school fits in the same grade in any 
other public school. Next to these old teachers are the 
young men and women — worthy, ambitious, good mate- 
rial — who know nothing of a well-graded school. Their 
horizon is limited. They mean well, but they have not 
studied the problems of school organization. They are 
amateurs in the work, and will learn by experience. 

There are two kinds of gradation — close gradation 
and loose gradation. The first is, under most circum- 
stances, the better, but the latter is a step in the right 
direction, and is often the best initial step in grading an 
ungraded school. In close gradation pupils move along 
in all the branches of the school course ; in loose grada- 
tion they may not be uniform in the different subjects 
of the course. They may be in the sixth grade in arithme- 
tic and in the fifth in grammar. The danger in loose 
gradation is that pupils will devote too much time to 



GRADING A RURAL SCHOOL 41 

the particular subject they Hke best. It gives teachers 
a chance to ride their hobby. 

Some years ago, while the author was superintendent 
of schools, a boy entered school who had been twice 
through his history of the United States and once 
through the complete geography, but had never studied 
grammar, and had only been to '' United States Money " 
in Ray's arithmetic — the only book he had studied on 
the subject. 

Principles of Gradation. — i. Pupils should be placed 
in grades adapted to their advancement and ability. It 
matters little what the grade is called, so long as the 
work is suited to the capacity of the pupil. Do not class 
the pupil so high that he cannot do the work. More 
pupils are injured by too high than too low classification. 
It leads to a smattering knowledge of the subject, and 
to habits of mental dissipation. Too low classification 
may lead to a lack of effort on the part of pupils. Noth- 
ing is a greater stimulus to study than a good class of 
equal ability to do the work. 

2. The different subjects in the school course should 
be kept abreast, each subject receiving its share of atten- 
tion. This is the bane of the ungraded school. Pupils 
go off at a tangent on the teacher's hobby. This is where 
a uniform course of study is beneficial. The personal 
likes or dislikes of the individual teacher are nearly 
eliminated in a course of study planned carefully by 
several persons familiar with the conditions of the 
schools. The course of study will be treated more fully 
in a subsequent chapter. 

I have had pupils often enter my school who were 
reading in the fourth reader, but were unable to make 



42 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

the combinations of numbers to ten. From one school I 
received a number of such pupils, and some of the 
parents could not see why their children were not classed 
as high in the public schools as they had been in the 
private school. They could not see that the teacher had 
catered to the whims of the ignorant, and graded the 
pupils upon the basis of the parents' estimate of the 
child, instead of the amount of work the child could do. 
I even heard a teacher (?) once advocate that if a parent 
wanted a child in a certain grade, it was the teacher's 
duty to place it there. The same argument would justify 
the parent in demanding that his child be graduated at 
the end of the year, regardless of ability. 

3. Age, health, capacity, and scholarship should be 
considered in grading. Older pupils may often be classed 
higher than younger ones, although the examination 
grades are the same. Some pupils have much reserve 
power, while others are working up to their limit. The 
first will be stimulated to greater efforts, while the others 
will be discouraged or overtaxed. The gravest charge 
the graded school has to meet is the overwork of the 
pupils in poor health. Do not grade too high a child who 
is physically weak. 

4. In the elementary school, reading and arithmetic 
should form the basis of gradation. All pupils are in 
these subjects. Without proficiency in these subjects, 
progress in other subjects is marred. The judicious 
teacher weighs well the pupil's progress in other branches, 
but insists upon thorough work in these two for promo- 
tion. 

5. Do not have too many classes. Grade and classify 
your pupils so you will never have more than twenty 



GRADING A RURAL SCHOOL 43 

recitations a day, and you should have less. This can 
be done by judiciously combining classes in certain 
subjects. 

6. Do not make your classes too large. From five 
to ten make the best sized classes. If the class is less 
than five, it is hard to secure class interest; if it is too 
large, there is little or no chance for individual instruc- 
tion. 

7. The amount of work required must in some degree 
consider the taste of the pupils. Some will excel in arith- 
metic. From such pupils require the maximum amount 
of arithmetic work. Others will excel in language and 
be poor in arithmetic. From them require the maximum 
of language and the minimum of arithmetic. 

8. Follow at first the classification of your prede- 
cessor. Let pupils understand that they must show them- 
selves proficient and above their class before they can be 
classed higher than they were assigned by their last 
teacher. Change in the administration of a well-graded 
school should not mean a change in classification of 
pupils. However, almost every teacher will be greeted 
when he enters a school for the first time, by a howl about 
the former teacher not promoting John and Jim and 
the others because she did not like them. My advice is 
to let John and Jim and the others prove their worth to 
you by their works. If you do, in nine cases out of 
ten you will keep the classification of the former teacher. 

9. Do not make your grading so iron-clad that the 
pupil may not sometimes be promoted irregularly. Such 
occasions will not occur often in a well-graded school, 
and such promotions must be made with care. Some 



44 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

pupils show off well for a few weeks, but the race is 
won only at the end. 

lo. Remember that promotion pleases parents and 
pupils, while the reverse does not. Seek, then, to promote 
only when the pupil is ready for the work of the next 
grade. If a pupil can do more than his class, but is not 
able to do the work of the next grade, assign extra work 
rather than promote the pupil, and then have him fail 
to make his grade at the end of the year, and fail of 
promotion to the next class. 



VII. THE COURSE OF STUDY 

The very argument used by many that the rural and 
village schools cannot follow a course of study and be 
well graded, is the strongest argument for the grading 
of these schools. A graded course of study will — 

1. Secure better attendance. 

2. Secure more regular attendance. 

3. Keep pupils in school longer. Hundreds of chil- 
dren are kept in school and do excellent work who 
would not be in school if it were not for the pleasure of 
feeling that they would complete a course of study. In 
other words, they want to graduate. Hundreds of young 
men have spent two and three profitable years in school, 
much to their good, led by a desire to get a diploma. 

4. Cause better work on the part of teachers as 
well as pupils. Thfe tread-mill grind of going over and 
over the same ground each year, disgusts many pupils 
with school. I speak from experience. One school of 
my knowledge, under a teacher who did not believe in 
the possibilities of grading the country school, took a 
class of children five successive years from the first page 
of Ray's Third Part Arithmetic to percentage. The terms 
were short, and it took just about that long to get over 
that many problems. The teacher whose mental horizon 
is so narrow that he sees no possible way to grade the 
school, usually belongs to the class of teachers who always 
assign the next five pages, regardless of what is treated 
in them. 



46 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

The whole argument against the possibiUty of grad- 
ing the rural schools has but one point, and that is, 
the children do not attend regularly. The person who 
has ever studied or observed the influence of grading on 
school attendance, knows that grading is one of the great- 
est promoters of regular attendance. If there is any- 
thing which really stirs parents and makes them alive to 
school matters, it is the fact that their child did not 
make his grade. The fear that the child will fail to pass 
overcomes many a flimsy excuse which otherwise would 
keep the child out of school near the close of the year. 
When pupils know that if they miss the last of the term 
they must stand an examination on the work before they 
enter the next grade the next year, all will prefer to pass 
at the close rather than to risk it after a summer's rest. 
While teachers must put forth extra effort near the close 
of the year to keep up school interest, as every one who 
is fit to teach will do, the graded school will help much. 

The graded rural school is coming because it is the 
common-sense thing, and it is one of the best schools in 
the world under a good teacher. It does not have the 
hide-bound grading of the city, and yet it is definite and 
complete, and has all the stimulus of class interest. It is 
practical in any school system. The grading of a school 
requires a course of study, and the planning of a course 
of study is a task. Here is where the knowledge of the 
specialist and the good judgment of the liberally educated 
man is needed. All the conditions must be weighed, and 
due consideration given to the worth of studies. The 
scientist wants to magnify science, the historian history, 
the mathematician mathematics, and the student of lan- 
guage is apt to place too much stress upon language. 
Herein lies the danger of the specialist in the high 



THE COURSE OF STODY 47 

schools, unless all is equalized and adjusted by a 
liberal-minded superintendent of sound judgment. A 
glance at a course of study will reveal much of the 
mental calibre of the teachers in the school. We find 
high schools proper with the university curricula,— high 
sounding names, long courses of study, degrees galore. 

Below is given a suggestive outline of a course of 
study. It may be modified to suit local conditions. 

It would not be expected that each class have a daily 
recitation in each subject named below. In the first year, 
for example, reading, writing, spelling, and language 
would all be combined; then different classes might be 
combined in many subjects. 

I' Suggestive Course of Study. 
i^ Primary Grades, 
i^ First Year. 

I* Reading. 

2* Writing. 

3^ Spelling. 

4* Language. 

5* Numbers. 

6* General Lessons. 

I' Singing. 

2^ Drawing. 

3' Care of the Body. 

4^ Calisthenics. 

5^ Morals and Manners. 
2^ Second Year. 
I* Reading. 
2* Writing. 
3* Spelling. 
4* Language. 



48 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 



5' 


Numbers. 


6* 


General Lessons. 




i^ Singing. 




2^ Drawing. 




3^ Care of the Body. 




4^ CaHsthenics. 




5^ Morals and Manners. 


f Third Year. 


I* 


Reading. 


2* 


Writing. 


3^ 


Spelling. 


4' 


Language. 


5* 


Primary Arithmetic. 


6* 


General Lessons. 




i^ Singing. 




2^ Drawing.. 




3^ Care of the Body. 




4^ Nature Study. 




5^ Calisthenics. 




6^ Morals and Manners, 


[termedii 


ate Grades. 


i^ Fourth Year. 


i^ 


Reading. 


2* 


Writing. 


3* 


Spelling. 


4' 


Language. 


5' 


Arithmetic. 


6* 


Geography. 


7' 


General Lessons. 




i^ Singing. 




2^ Drawing. 




3^ Health Lessons. 



THE COURSE OF STUDY 49 

4'' Nature Study. 

5^^ Calisthenics. 

6'* Morals and Manners. 
2^ Fifth Year. 

I* Reading and Literature. 

2* Writing. 

3* Spelling. 

4* Language. 

5* Arithmetic. 

6* Geography. 

7* General Lessons. 

i^ Music. 

2^ Drawing. 

3^ Hygiene. 

4® Nature or Agriculture. 

5^ Calisthenics. 

6^ Morals and Manners. 
3^ Sixth Year. 

I* Literature. 

2* Writing. 

3* Spelling. 

4* Elementary Grammar. 

5* Arithmetic. 

6* Geography. 

7* History. 

8* General Lessons. 

i^ Music. 

2^ Drawing. 

3^ Hygiene. 

4^ Nature or Agriculture. 

5^ Calisthenics. 

6^ Morals and Manners. 



50 MANAGBMBNT AND METHODS 



3^ Advanced Grades. 


1 3 Seventh Year. 


i^ 


Literature. 


2* 


Orthography. 


3* 


Grammar. 


4* 


Arithmetic. 


5^ 


Geography. 


6* 


History. 


7' 


Physiology. 


8* 


General Exercises. 




i^ Music. 




2^ Drawing. 




3^ Nature or Agriculture. 




4^ Calisthenics. 



5^ Morals and Manners. 
2^ Eighth Year. 

I* Literature. 

2* Orthography. 

3* Grammar and Composition. 

4* Arithmetic. 

5* Geography. 

6* History. 

7* Physiology. 

8* General Exercises. 

i^ Music. 

2^ Drawing. 

3^ Nature or Agriculture. 

4^ Calisthenics. 

5^ Literary Exercises. 

6^ Morals and Manners. 

If your county or State does not have a prescribed 
course of study, you can from this outline work out a 



THE COURSE OF STUDY 51 

well-planned course. Make careful estimates of what 
your classes can do, and plan to distribute this work over 
the different months of the term, allowing a few weeks 
for review at the close of the year, as well as at the be- 
ginning of the term. 



VIII. THE ASSIGNMENT OF THE LESSON 

No recitation is complete until the advanced lesson is 
assigned. This is one of the most important things in 
a good school, and yet many teachers do not give it a 
second thought. It is shamefully true that many times 
neither the teacher nor the class remember the exact 
extent of the lesson. 

The proper assignment of a lesson requires fore- 
thought on the part of the teacher. To assign too much 
leads pupils to a smattering knowledge of the subject. 
They soon learn that it is impossible to get over all the 
lesson, hence they need study only part of the assign- 
ment. Pupils are frequently found who do not pretend 
to get the whole lesson. The teacher is never known to 
get to the end of the lesson, and there is no incentive to 
prepare all of it. 

If the lesson is too short, some pupils soon get it, 
and stop study — and often stop others from studying ; 
while a number, feeling that they can soon prepare a little 
short lesson like that, put it off until the very last minute, 
and then perhaps do not have half time enough to pre- 
pare it as they should. In assigning a lesson, the follow- 
ing points should be considered : — 

I. The lesson should be specific. There should be no 
doubt in the mind of the teacher or any member of the 
class about how much is to be done or how it is to be 
prepared. Teach pupils to listen to the assignment, and 
then be brief and definite yourself. 

52 



ASSIGNMENT OF THE LESSON 53 

2. The ability of the class must be considered in the 
assignment of the lesson. Assign the work which can be 
done, and properly done, by the average members of the 
class. Assign supplementary topics, and work for those 
brighter ones who always get done first, and then get 
into mischief next. Help the slow ones and encourage 
them, but do not do their work for them nor permit it to 
go undone. 

3. The time for the preparation must be considered 
in assigning the lesson. Some teachers assign as much 
when the pupils have a quarter of an hour to study it as 
i'f they had a quarter of a day. The time of the day 
should be considered also. If it must be prepared while 
the pupils are tired or when they are fresh and rested, 
it will modify the assignment. 

4. The previous training of the pupils will have much 
to do with the assignment of the lesson. After school 
is in session a few months, and pupils are used to sys- 
tematic study, the lessons may be longer than at the 
beginning of the term. 

5. The teacher 'should know the relation the new 
lesson is to bear to the previous lessons and to those 
which are to follow. This perspective is essential to 
the intelligent assignment of the new lesson, otherwise 
it is blind assignment only. 

6. The teacher should know the contents of the new 
lesson, and the length of time which it should take the 
class to prepare it. A high school teacher of my ac- 
quaintance frequently assigned lessons in algebra which 
would have required her on an average of three hours 
to prepare. It is a very common occurrence for a teacher 
to assign a lesson which he could not recite intelligently 
himself without a longer time for study than the class 



54 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

have to prepare. The teacher then grumbles and frets 
and scolds because the pupils do not get their lessons. 

7. Assign a reasonable lesson, then require that it be 
properly prepared and recited. This is the best specific 
for a good school, and for happy, hearty work from the 
pupils. 



IX. THE RECITATION 

The recitation is the best test of the teacher. A man 
may be a good organizer of schools, and yet a very poor 
teacher; a good teacher is frequently a poor organizer; 
but a good teacher, whatever else he may lack, is mas- 
ter of the recitation. It is in the recitation that mind 
comes in contact with mind, and this is the greatest stim- 
ulant of thought. Were it not for the recitation, private 
study and teaching by correspondence might take the 
place of regular school work. If assigning lessons were 
the only purpose of the teacher, a simple electrical device 
might be arranged to indicate the pages and paragraphs 
and the time to be allotted to study, and the teacher could 
be dispensed with. An aimless, listless, worthless reci- 
tation is the most disorganizing agency in a school. 

Some purposes of the recitation are : — 

1. To test the pupils' knowledge and the teacher's 
thoroughness in instruction. 

2. To explain and guide the pupil's efforts. 

3. To awaken inquiry and stimulate study and in- 
vestigation. 

4. To review previous work, deepen impressions, and 
aid pupils in the assimilation of knowledge previously 
learned. 

Each recitation will furnish opportunity for achieving 
these ends. Sometimes one purpose will predominate in 
the recitation and sometimes another. Very often we 
make the first the only object, and then limit it to a test 

66 



56 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

of the pupil's preparation. Perhaps in this day, when 
the tendency is so strongly toward much talk and little 
thought in the recitation, this conservative tendency is 
not to be wholly condemned, but the teacher who does 
not consider the recitation in part a test of the efficiency 
of his own instruction, is in danger of becoming a 
" Gradgrind " without a conscience. 

The second is a legitimate purpose, but may be easily 
overdone. The purpose of the school is to give the 
child the experience of the race without serious loss of 
time. A legitimate purpose of the recitation, in like 
manner, is to direct the efforts of the pupil, so he may 
have a maximum of mental achievement in a minimum 
of time. When the pupil is groping, when he is wast- 
ing energy in misguided effort, help from the teacher 
is sound pedagogy. Yet in the present day there is 
a strong tendency toward doing the thinking for the 
pupil, and the teacher should give aid judiciously. Noth- 
ing will give strength and mental fiber but hard and con- 
tinued thinking on the part of the pupil, and nothing 
breeds mental effeminacy as fast as the teacher's doing 
the thinking for the pupil. The teacher may make clear 
the steps and guide the efforts, but he must not do the 
work. 

To awaken thought and stimulate investigation is the 
leading purpose of the recitation. Here the teacher's 
individuality and personality assert themselves. The 
flash of the eye, the tone of the voice, the activity of 
the mind, his knowledge of human nature — boy and 
girl nature — here assert themselves. Perfect self-pos- 
session and personal magnetism serve to stimulate and 
encourage. The art of questioning is an item of im- 
portance. The dull teacher blunts and represses the 



THE RECITATION 57 

mental activity of the child. The influences of some 
teachers on a class is like an anesthetic, and if continued 
long enough, may produce a mental lethargy almost as 
harmful. Life, animation, a desire to know, quickens 
and organizes knowledge. Definite aim and self-control 
in the teacher make the recitation a source of inspiration 
to the pupil, and render unnecessary the constant up- 
braiding so often heard directed to lazy pupils during 
study periods. 

Knowledge is worthless until it becomes a part of 
the individual. Undigested food blocks, congests, and 
impairs digestion. Knowledge unassimilated destroys 
mental power. It is a law of the mind that it acts most 
easily as it has acted before. Thought, whatever may 
be its mysterious connection with the brain, leaves an 
impress and tends to follow the path of least resistance. 
Thinking along certain lines forms mental habits. It is 
one purpose of the recitation to strengthen these lines. 
Impressions ever so clear will fade from the child's mind 
unless repeated. Hence the necessity for constant re- 
view, and the recitation should renew and strengthen 
these impressions, and completely correlate the new 
knowledge with the old. 

These being the main purposes of the recitation, how 
may they be attained? Much will depend upon the per- 
sonality of the teacher. There are also many minor 
details. The criterion for testing these details is this: 
The minds of the individuals of the class and the mind 
of the teacher must he a unit. Anything which breaks 
this unity is detrimental to the recitation : anything 
which promotes this unity is beneficial to the recitation. 
This principle will settle many minor details. Youne 



58 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

teachers are prone to try device after device, thinking 
little of the principle upon which they are based. 

What is the purpose of a separate recitation seat? 
To bring the class closer together where the pupils will 
be convenient to the blackboard, the map, or the chart, 
and in close touch with the teacher, and by this means 
aid the mental unity of the pupils and the teacher. Every- 
thing liable to divide the attention of the class should 
if possible be removed. Seriousness, earnestness, busi- 
nesslike methods on the part of the teacher will get the 
same on the part of the pupils. Let every word of the 
teacher be to the point, and do not let him forget that 
it is the pupil's place to recite, and not the teacher's. 

Shall the teacher stop the recitation to chastise a pupil 
for misconduct? It is sometimes necessary, but rarely 
so. Is the pupil's conduct such that it is more detri- 
mental to the mental unity of the class than the stopping 
of the recitation? If not, unless the bad conduct of 
the pupil is growing habitual, better ignore it at the time 
and continue the recitation. Reprove the pupil in pri- 
vate, or after the recitation. If you must stop the reci- 
tation to reprove, administer the reproof caustic enough 
so that it will not have to be repeated. Let the teacher 
inject business methods and seriousness into the recita- 
tion, and pupils will catch the spirit, and this spirit will 
be carried into the study periods. 

The teacher must have a definite plan of the lesson 
in mind ; he must have his knowledge organized ; he 
must know what is in the lesson for the day; he must 
know it as an individual lesson, and know it in its re- 
lation to that which precedes and that which follows 
it. He must have an outline of the lesson in his own 
mind, and the thought of the text, without having to 



THE RECITATION 59 

refer to each step in the text-book. If he is teaching 
percentage, he should be familiar enough with the au- 
thor's treatment to name the cases and to give the differ- 
ent applications of percentage in the order in which the 
author treats them. He should also be familiar with 
the author's language in the wording of the definitions, 
principles, and rules. The teacher's minimum knowl- 
edge of the subject and its treatment should be the 
maximum of the pupil's knowledge after studying it. 
How can a confused, heterogeneous mass of unorgan- 
ized, unassimilated, shadowy facts — a lot of hazy, ghost- 
like generalities — in the mind of the teacher, lead to 
specific, definite knowledge on the part of the pupil? 
As well attempt to make bricks out of moonshine ! Too 
often the recitation is a time-killer, the teacher having 
no object but to kill time until the next recess. He puts 
no soul into his work, and the pupil gets no life out 
of it. 

" He that loseth his own life shall find it " in the 
future lives of his pupils. 



X. EXAMINATIONS 

Examinations are the weak teacher's hobby, the 
pupil's dread, and the critic's bug-bear, and yet they 
are necessary to a systematic school course. They are 
often overdone, and it cannot be denied that they are 
often detrimental to nervous, ambitious pupils. The 
detriment, however, comes from their abuse rather than 
their use. Too often examinations are charged with 
things for which they are not responsible. The pale, 
delicate girl, urged into society by a mother too fearful 
lest her daughter grow old on her hands, quits school 
to be rid of the worry and nerve strain of examination, 
and yet she can dance from dark until daylight. It is 
not infrequent we teachers hear charges against the 
school which we know to be utterly false. It would 
be a most excellent thing if all girls who left school 
on account of their health were compelled to refrain 
from all social dissipation for a twelve month, and better 
still if we could prevent all social dissipation during 
the school year. 

It is noticeable, also, that those teachers who show 
least proficiency in passing examinations are often the 
most unreasonable and the most exacting in the exami- 
nation of their pupils. High school teachers give ex- 
aminations in Latin and mathematics hard enough that 
if the same questions had been used in the examina- 
tion of the teachers who prepared them six weeks before 
they were used to test the pupil, the charity of the ex- 
aminer alone would have saved the teacher from failure. 

60 



nXAMINATIONS 61 

From an examination, a reasonable one, properly 
managed, good results may come. Examinations are 
bad masters, but good servants. They have been abused, 
and this has created prejudice and opposition. They 
serve some good and even necessary purposes : — 

1. They stimulate pupils to thorough study and a 
determination to master the subject. The pupil that 
has mastered the subject is always ready for examina- 
tion, and usually welcomes it. The shallow pupil dreads 
it. The fact that they expect to be examined on a sub- 
ject is an incentive to thorough work, and it is a proper 
incentive also. 

2. Examinations teach pupils to apply and to ex- 
press their knowledge. The man who has his knowl- 
edge at hand, who can think quickly and accurately, who 
can focus his thoughts upon a single point, is the suc- 
cessful man. Examinations properly conducted train 
pupils in quick, accurate, systematic thinking. 

3. Examinations give valuable and necessary data 
for promotions, records, and reports. To base promo- 
tion wholly upon examinations is an educational blun- 
der; to wholly neglect them in making promotions is a 
greater blunder. K combination of class grades and ex- 
amination grades is a far safer guide. Every teacher 
has seen pupils who are brilliant in recitation, but who 
do not seem to retain anything a week, and who never 
seem to get a connected view or working knowledge of 
any subject. On the other hand, to make the examina- 
tion the only test is unfair. The pupil may be in poor 
physical condition at the time of examination; he may 
be easily confused or he may be naturally a slow worker ; 
in either case the examination grades would not do him 
justice. 



62 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

The character of the examination questions is im- 
portant. We can as well judge of a teacher's qualifi- 
cations to teach by carefully considering a list of ques- 
tions he prepares for the examination of his class, as 
to grade him upon a list he has answered. His teach- 
ing ability and ideals will be unconsciously revealed in 
his questions. The school examination will test the 
teacher's teaching as well as the pupil's learning, A 
primary teacher who had given her class a number of 
oral lessons on the camel, showing them pictures of 
the camel, pictures of the caravans, etc., and had told 
them that the camel was called the " ship of the desert," 
because it could drink enough water to last it many 
days, that the large hump on its back was fat, and when 
the camel was without food this fat went to nourish the 
body, was surprised on examination, when a boy said 
the camel was called the ship of the desert because it 
had a big hump of fat on its back, and whenever it was 
hungry, it just reached around and got a bite. The ex- 
amination quickly revealed the trouble. He did not 
understand the word nourish. 

The examination should not be killing to the body 
or to the mind, and should never be what occasionally 
some teachers make it, simply an implement of torture 
for pupils. It should not be of such a nature as to 
stimulate cramming, and should not be a discouragement 
to study. 

1. It should be confined to what the pupil ought 
to know or be able to do. It is no place for puzzles, or 
for questions designed to show the teacher's intricate 
knowledge of the subject. 

2. It should be a test of the pupil's ability and ac- 
quirements, and not of his power to memorize. The 



EXAMINATIONS 63 

examination should test the pupil's understanding of the 
subject, and this test will help the teacher, serving as 
a guide in his future work with the pupil. 

3. It should be thorough, but not tedious. The ques- 
tions should be pointed and clear, requiring brief, plain 
answers. They should avoid minor details and unim- 
portant technicalities, and call for explanations, princi- 
ples, essential definitions, and leading features. 

4. It should be made to foster genuine study rather 
than cramming with facts. When pupils find that the 
examination tests the thoroughness of the work and the 
mastery of the subject, rather than the acquisition of a 
mass of memorized facts, they will study to understand 
rather than simply to remember. 

5. It should not be too long. Teachers are some- 
times guilty of cruelty to children simply by the length 
of the examinations they give. Each of us, man or 
child, has but a limited amount of energy at any given 
time. When this is^ exhausted, further efforts are futile. 
I have known teachers to give examinations upon a 
single subject which would keep a large majority of the 
class a whole half day and until after dark. If it were 
occasionally an individual pupil, one would suppose the 
pupil was slow, but when it is a large per cent, of the 
class, it shows that the teacher has misjudged the pu- 
pils or has a wrong conception of the examination. Such 
things ought to call down the righteous indignation of 
an intelligent public, and it is doubtful if a teacher whose 
judgment is at fault so much in that line, is the best 
teacher. Lengthy examinations wear out the pupil, and 
if the teacher grades the papers properly, they wear 
out the teacher also. 



'64 MANAGBMBNT AND METHODS 

Teachers as a rule do not give thought enough to the 
preparation of the examination questions. They are 
made out hurriedly. The teacher usually prepares the 
questions in order to fit certain things which have been 
emphasized in class or more plainly to test the pupils' 
memory. A better plan would be to have some level- 
headed teacher who has not had charge of the class to 
prepare the questions to test the pupils' knowledge of 
the subject. The examination then will serve a double 
purpose — it will more accurately test the pupil, and it 
will also test the teacher's teaching. 

Examinations should not be held too often. The 
formal examination each month is too frequent. Writ- 
ten reviews and written recitations, however, should be 
frequent, and should come unannounced. The pupils 
should be trained to be ready at any time, and this 
training will do much to relieve the nervous strain upon 
regular examination days. Never threaten pupils with 
examination, discourage cramming, seek to get your pu- 
pils free and self-possessed upon examination days; as 
far as possible prevent late study in preparation for ex- 
amination; plan your questions with care, make them 
to test the understanding of pupils, make them fair and 
of reasonable length, and your pupils will not fear ex- 
amination days, and you will find examinations useful in 
many ways, and hurtful in none. 



XL REPORTS 

When the teacher has decided upon the time and 
plan of the examination, when he has prepared the ques- 
tions and the pupils have answered them, his task is 
but half done. The subject of grading is an important 
one, and to the mind of the conscientious teacher, who 
has the pupil's welfare at heart, — and the teachers are 
few and far between who have not, — there are other 
perplexing questions. The cold, matter-of-fact teacher, 
the teacher without sympathy, the heartless " Gradgrind " 
who measures each answer with his own mental yard- 
stick — and this yard-stick sometimes of questionable ac- 
curacy — may drive many sensitive pupils from school 
and rack the nerves of many others. These have 
brought examinations into disrepute. 

On the other hand, the teacher of vacillating tendency, 
the one without personality, who is continually bidding 
for popularity, who' is satisfied with anything, any way, 
any time, may take all the seriousness out of the ex- 
amination, and make it the laughing-stock of the pupils. 
I have seen teachers' reports in which it was seldom that 
any of the pupils made less than 95 per cent. Such 
grades may be made ; some pupils will frequently make 
them. A friend of mine has a general average of 102 
per cent, on a teacher's license. Such grades are rare, 
however. In this case the county superintendent allowed 
5 per cent, general average for attendance at county in- 
stitute, and his average scholarship was 97 per cent. 

A pupil's grades mean little or nothing when consid- 
ered by themselves. Teachers' standards of grading are 
5 66 



66 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

various. Heat and cold are only relative terms, and the 
grades of a pupil, likewise, will only indicate his stand- 
ing or progress compared with others of the class. The 
teacher's standard may be high or low ; he may grade 
loosely or rigidly, but he must grade all members of the 
class on the same basis. It is like the assessment of 
property. If a town wants to raise $i,ooo, it makes 
little difference whether property is assessed high or 
low. The rate will be correspondingly low or high, but 
all property must be listed on the same basis. 

Grading is necessary and serves three well-defined 
purposes : — 

1. It stimulates effort on the part of pupils. The 
conscientious teacher is pleased with the success and 
grieved at the failure of pupils. He expresses this 
pleasure by words, looks, and grades, and the recorded 
approval of the teacher is a strong incentive to effort. 

2. Grades indicate the achievement of pupils, and 
the teacher is enabled to follow the pupil's growth more 
closely. These should be made a matter of record. We 
cannot always trust to memory. If carefully consid- 
ered, recorded opinion will aid us, and these facts are 
indispensable. 

3. Grades, if properly marked, enable the teacher to 
make reliable reports. Teachers are changed and pupils 
are promoted, and unless there are reliable reports, con- 
fusion results. No board of education should settle in 
full with a teacher until a complete and adequate report 
is made to the successor. 

In marking grades, effort, attainment, and growth 
all deserve to be considered. You must seek as far as 
possible to eliminate feeling. Mark favorites below 



REPORTS 67 

rather than above your estimate, and the unfortunate 
ones above your estimate. If you must err, let it be 
on the side of mercy. 

Promotion should be based upon grades derived from 
class work and examination combined. I should divide 
them evenly. Some would place more stress upon class 
grades. There are pupils who study simply to recite. 
This is a wrong motive. Study should be prompted by 
a desire to know. Grades and marking are only scaffold- 
ing which enables us to erect the building — of no use 
in itself, but serving a useful purpose. 

In marking class grades it need not be done daily. 
The highest office of the teacher is to teach, not to place 
black marks after the names of lazy boys. The teacher 
may grade one recitation each week, the pupils not know- 
ing beforehand that they are to be graded ; or he may 
make a weekly estimate, giving it always honest, careful 
attention. This will show very well the progress of the 
pupil in his work. Do not refer to last week's marks 
when making the estimate for this week. If you grade 
with your former estimate before you, you are apt to 
rely upon or be influenced by it, and this is the very 
thing you should avoid. 

With careful grading, honest work, and enthusiasm 
on the part of the teacher, what per cent, of the pupils 
should be promoted at the end of the year? This will 
vary with the class. There are strong classes and weak 
classes. Sometimes we may be striving to raise the 
course of study, and deliberately plan to let only the 
attest survive. But with regular attendance and a well- 
graded school at the beginning of the year, there should 
not be a large per cent, fail to be promoted. With these 
two conditions — regular attendance and good grading 



68 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

to begin with — at least nine out of ten should be pro- 
moted. A larger per cent, of failures reflects upon 
the teacher: the order was poor, the instruction was not 
good, or there was a lack of earnestness in school work. 
Let the teacher examine himself before he condemns too 
great a per cent, of a class to failure. 

These grades, with the attendance, punctuality, and 
deportment of the pupil, should be reported to the pa- 
rents each month. Parents have a right to know the 
progress of their children, and the teacher who does 
not use a good monthly report of some kind is neglect- 
ing an excellent opportunity of securing better attend- 
ance, better punctuality, and harder work. The monthly 
report keeps parents in touch with the school and with 
what the children are doing. Even if they are not fur- 
nished at public expense, they save a teacher in worry 
and energy many times their cost. 

REPORT TO SUCCESSOR. 

The greatest hindrance to the successful grading 
of our schools is inadequate reports to successors. A 
change of teachers means too frequently the reclassifi- 
cation of a school. What if our county officers, the 
county clerk, or the county treasurer left such reports, 
or as frequently happens, no report at all? No teacher 
should change the classification of a pupil as stated by 
the former teacher until he has thoroughly tested the 
pupil's ability for advanced work. Pupils should know 
that a change of teachers does not mean a possibility 
of getting credit for work not done. 

No teacher's term of school is complete, and no 
teacher should be paid his last month's salary, until he 



REPORTS 69 

has filed a complete report to his successor. This report 
should include : — 

1. The name of each pupil and the number of days 
the pupil was in school. 

2. The subjects the pupil studied and his standing 
in each subject. 

3. The amount of work done in each subject and the 
page where you think the work should begin the next 
term. 

4. A brief summary of the work done by each grade 
or class. 

5. General recommendations in regard to course of 
study, etc. 

A good report can be written out on fools-cap paper. 
A printed form is valuable, and is much more likely to be 
filled out, but it is no way an essential. Tell your suc- 
cessor in plain terms the things you would want to know 
if you were a stranger and taking up the school for the 
first time. Don't neglect it. Your term is not complete 
until this report is made. Don't claim your last month's 
salary until this, one of the most important things, is 
done. 



XII. RIGHT CONDITIONS FOR TEACHING 

Before any method or device can be successful there 
must be right conditions in the school-room. The per- 
sonality of the teacher is quite as manifest in placing the 
pupils of the school in the receptive attitude as in the 
teaching process. It often happens that teachers who un- 
derstand the laws of mental growth and who have 
well-laid plans of instruction fail because of lack of 
government. They do not have that almost indefinable 
something which commands attention without demand- 
ing it. 

Not all good teachers are born teachers. We have 
numbers of sincere, earnest teachers whose results are 
thoroughly satisfactory, and yet they could not be classed 
among those fortunate ones who may be called born 
teachers. Skill may come by intelligent study and prac- 
tice as much in teaching as in hundreds of other walks 
of life. All that is required is intelligence, hard work, 
a love for the task, and a determination to succeed. 

It is true that in teaching, as in other occupations, 
we may find those whose God-given talents seem to im- 
pel them to the work. They are geniuses in their line. 
But most of those who believe themselves to be born 
teachers have a secret reason for their belief, which is 
nothing more nor less than to save the time and expense 
of being made. Each teacher should catechize himself: 
" I am failing here in this ; why is it ? " In that hour of 
self-communion — and each teacher should have such 
an hour once or twice a week — let him earnestly ques- 

70 



RIGHT CONDITIONS FOR TEACHING 71 

tion himself as to the cause of his failure, and the chances 
are many to one that in seeking the cause of failure he 
will find the remedy. 

There are a few rocks so dangerous, and so many 
teachers are wrecked upon them, that to point out some 
of them may not be amiss. 

/. Daily Preparation. — It would hardly seem neces- 
sary that teachers must be reminded of their duty to pre- 
pare each day's work carefully. This preparation should 
not only include the details of the lesson for the partic- 
ular recitation, but this lesson should be seen in its rela- 
tion to the lessons preceding and those to follow. Know 
what you want to teach ; why you want to teach it ; what 
preparation your class has for this new lesson, and how 
this new lesson is to hinge to the next one. , This requires 
that the teacher have a teacher's knowledge of the sub- 
ject taught and the proper relation to the other subjects 
of the school course. This fresh preparation for the 
work of the day will add zest to the recitation. It will 
be reflected in the tone of the voice, the elastic step, and 
the sparkling eye of the teacher. He will not be re- 
quired to demand attention, his whole attitude will si- 
lently command it. His whole bearing will proclaim the 
importance of the lesson, and the pupils will be aroused 
to the receptive attitude. 

Daily preparation is absolutely essential to the best 
teaching, however thorough the teacher may have once 
been in the subject. Too much of our teaching is sleepy, 
slip-shod, listless, indefinite presentation of a lot of shad- 
owy facts lying incoherent in the teacher's mind, and the 
results are equally indefinite in the pupil's mind. Stop 
a recitation, and ask the teacher to recite instead of the 



72 MANAGBMBNT AND METHODS 

pupil, and see how often the record of the recitation will 
be a failure. ,Let him have a message to give, a lesson 
to teach, and let his soul be on fire to deliver this message, 
and then let him remember the child is educated, not by 
what the teacher does for it, but by what he causes the 
child to do for itself, and his teaching results are apt 
to be safe. 

2. Conduct in the School-room. — Good order does 
not mean simply quiet. There is the noise of work, and 
the noise of confusion and idleness. There is the quiet- 
ness which comes from interest and study, and the quiet- 
ness which comes from fear of the teacher. Children 
are controlled by internal and external motives. You 
may be a very poor disciplinarian, and have almost death- 
like stillness in your study room. It is the discipline of 
the tyrant, and this kind of discipline is very frequently 
an incubator for later lawlessness. Can you leave your 
school-room for ten minutes or half an hour and on re- 
turning find that things have gone orderly? If not, 
why not? Good order in the school-room implies that 
each child is able to do its best work at any time without 
external disturbance. 

Good order in the recitation requires that the mind 
of the teacher and the mind of the class be in perfect 
contact. This is the criterion of all school rules, Hozv 
does this affect the unity of the mind of the teacher and 
the pupil f During the study period the author takes the 
place of the teacher, and the same criterion holds good. 
This will answer a multitude of questions on school gov- 
ernment about which the young teacher worries and often 
consults older teachers. "Shall I permit whispering?" 
they ask. " Shall I permit pupils in the room to ask 
questions wheii I am hearing a recitation ? " " Shall I 



RIGHT CONDITIONS FOR TEACHING 73 

permit a child to get a drink during the school hours ? " 
" Shall I stop a recitation to reprimand a boy? " All these 
and scores of others may be answered as well as any 
experienced teacher can answer them by testing them 
by the above criterion. Do that which will result in the 
closest possible contact of the mind of the teacher and 
the mind of the class. It is very true we may often have 
to choose the lesser of two evils, but a reference to the 
above principle will be the best possible guide. If the 
conduct of the pupil will continue to disturb the attention 
of the class more than the reprimand, by all means give 
the reprimand, but do it so effectively that it will seldom 
have to be repeated. 

J. The School-room at Recess. — Much of the disor- 
der in the school-room is due to the conduct of pupils 
in the room at intermission. The play-ground and the 
open air are the places for sport. From the very first 
pupils should enter the school-room as if it were sacred 
ground, not necessarily with a long face, but with a feel- 
ing that all frivolousness must be laid aside. Running and 
romping and loud talking and boisterousness at playtime 
in the school-room lead to familiarity with such things 
until pupils do not feel that calm which is so conducive 
to right conduct and proper study when they enter the 
room after recess. Much of the sacredness, the calm, 
restful sweetness which comes upon entering the church 
would be destroyed if all kinds of boisterousness and 
noisy carousals were indulged in in the church. The 
same is true to a degree in the school-room. 

It is decidedly the duty of the teacher to be in the 
school-room half an hour before the time of opening 
school. If a teacher is habitually late, the school board 
should demand a reform or a resignation. The pande- 



74 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

monium which reigns in the school-room at such times 
is detrimental to good teaching. If pupils bring lunch., 
the teacher should remain about the building at the noon 
hour. Some persons may object to this, and picture the 
poor teacher eating a cold lunch day after day and breed- 
ing dyspepsia with its indescribable nerve-wrecking mis- 
eries. While this might be true in rare instances, dozens 
of cases of nervous prostration may be traced as directly 
to the seeds of disorder sown in the teacher's absence 
from the room at the noon hour. And here, too, we 
should choose the lesser of two evils. 

Teachers should see that pupils use proper decorum 
in entering the school-room after recess. All games 
should cease at the ringing of the first bell, and pupils 
prepare to enter the building. The plan of movement 
here will depend largely upon the size of the school. In 
cities and large towns, where hundreds of children are 
to be managed, the regular march is necessary. In 
smaller places simply falling in line without regard 
to grade or position in the room may be all that is neces- 
sary. But in all cases they should enter the room quietly, 
and the boys should remove their hats at the door as if 
they were entering a church or private home. 

4. System in Calling and Dismissing Classes. — There 
must be some system also in calling and dismissing 
classes. It is not an uncommon occurrence to see a class 
called and pupils come rushing helter-skelter, hurry- 
scurry, to get favorite places on the recitation seat. Each 
pupil should have a definite place during the recitation 
period. This position will be determined — 

(i) By the pupil's location in the room and the con- 
sequent position as the lines pass to the recitation seat. 



RIGHT CONDITIONS FOR TEACHING 75 

(2) By the congeniality of kindred spirits with 
which he may be thrown in the recitation. It often 
happens that two fairly good boys are so constructed 
that they cannot sit near each other without pinching, 
kicking, or disturbing each other as well as their class- 
mates during the recitation. Separate such as far as 
space will permit. 

Good order in the school-room and in the recitation 
are influenced greatly by the tact and good judgment 
of the teacher in seating pupils. Have a definite signal 
which calls the attention of the class. This may be a 
gentle tap of the call-bell or of a pencil, or it may be 
the counting of " one " by the teacher. At this signal 
each pupil begins promptly to prepare to rise if the class 
is to pass to the recitation seat, or to lay aside all un- 
necessary books or pencils if the class are to remain in 
their seats for the recitation. When all are ready, the 
second signal is given, and the class rise and stand or- 
derly. A third signal is given, and they pass quietly to 
the recitation seat. ^ When all are in place, at a gentle 
nod of the head or a fourth signal all are seated. If the 
recitation is to be conducted with the pupils in their 
regular seats, all books, papers, pencils, rules, etc., not 
needed in the recitation should be laid aside. These 
little things are disorder breeders, as they are contin- 
ually attracting the attention. Flowers, perfume cards, 
etc., pleasant as they are, often become nuisances in the 
school-room, as they come too frequently between the 
pupils and their school duties. 

The same plan should be followed in dismissing 
classes as in calling them. When a class is seated, give 
ample time for them to get their books and papers ready 
to prepare the next lesson before the next class is called. 



76 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

Never seem to hurry ; it is a waste of time. Promptness 
of action, but not haste, is in this as in all things, a time 
saver. 

5. Dismission. — It is of just as much importance to 
have system and decorum in dismissing pupils as in call- 
ing them. Here is the one time of all the day when the 
teacher has the advantage of the pupils, and the one time 
where he can least afford to hurry. How often the 
nervous teacher, anxious to be relieved of the responsi- 
bility of government, dismisses quickly to avoid con- 
fusion. Instead, he should be so gentle and deliberate in 
his movements that the pupils are quieted and rested. 
Perfect quietness should precede every dismission. A 
moment of perfect quietness, a pleasant word, and a de- 
liberate manner of dismissing in the evening acts as a 
kind of dessert for the day's work, and leaves a pleasant 
flavor; while a jump and shout, a snatching of hats and 
a rush for the door will disorganize for a week. Moni- 
tors should distribute wraps and everything be made 
ready, then at the signal all prepare to rise, and the lines 
pass as quietly and orderly from the building and the 
grounds as they do to a recitation. 

6. Opening School. — Too many teachers give little 
heed to the opening exercises, forgetting how important 
it is and how it influences the whole day's work. A 
good beginning may not always presage a good ending, 
but it often does. The pupils come together in the 
morning, some gorged upon dainties of all kinds, others 
from a breakfast of the coarsest of plain food, and others 
perhaps who may still be hungry. Some are peevish from 
petting, others sour from scolding, some glad to get to 
the school-room, others disgusted with its restrictions. 



RIGHT CONDITIONS FOR TEACHING 77 

The purpose of the opening exercise is to collect the 
wandering thoughts of the pupils, drive out all peevish- 
ness, and bring the school into a teachable attitude. To 
do this requires skill and study on the part of the teacher. 
Nowhere else is there more need for planning and 
preparation. The teacher must know before the time 
comes for the opening of school what he expects to give 
for opening exercises. There must be variety also. Chil- 
dren tire of sameness. It must be definite. It must be 
interesting. It must be brief and to the point. The fol- 
lowing suggestions may be useful : — 

(i) A cheerful song, or two or more songs, if the 
pupils like to sing, makes a good exercise. Singing, not 
lessons in music, should be a prominent part of the open- 
ing exercises. 

(2) A solo or a recitation from some one or a duet 
is .good. Let this come as a surprise to the school. 

(3) A humorous or pathetic story, if well related or 
read, is in place. Do not spoil it by tacking a long moral 
to it. ' 

(4) A Scripture reading without comment is not out 
of place, and a brief prayer if it come from the heart, 
may follow the lesson. 

(5) A brief news report by some pupil, giving a 
summary of the world's events for the week, may be 
made interesting. 

(6) Give a brief biography of some of our great men 
now living, and let it be studied and presented in such 
a manner as to be an inspiring lesson to boys and girls. 

(7) Discuss social questions, such as strikes, elec- 
tions, etc., being sure to be liberal always in your views 
and criticisms. 



78 MANAGBMBNT AND METHODS 

(8) Write a motto or maxim on the board, and dis- 
cuss its meaning and application with pupils. 

(9) Perform an interesting experiment which ex- 
plains some scientific fact or principle. This, if properly 
done, begets intense interest and is very valuable. 

(10) Short queries, if appropriate, are good. 

(11) Information lessons on plants and animals, il- 
lustrated when possible by the object or by pictures, will 
be both interesting and profitable. 

(12) Discuss the manufacture of common articles, 
such as pens, pencils, boots, shoes, buttons, etc. When 
possible, visit such factories and make close observations 
so that you can give a clear description. The teacher 
who fails to visit a factory when he has an opportunity 
is not awake to his best interests. 

(13) Give interesting facts graphically illustrated. 
For example, we raised two billion bushels of corn in 
the United States in 1902. Counting twenty bushels to 
the load and twenty feet of space for the team and 
wagon, how many times will the procession which moves 
the corn reach round the earth at the equator? How 
many tons of water fell in your county last year? How 
many tons fell upon the roof of your school-house? 

(14) Select a number of historic quotations, as, 
'' Don't give up the ship," place them on the board, and 
have pupils tell when, by whom, and upon what occasions 
they were used. 

(15) Give brief descriptions of historic places and 
things you have seen. Be modest and be brief. 

(16) Describe the habits, manners, and customs of 
strange peoples of the earth. 



RIGHT CONDITIONS FOR TEACHING 79 

_ (17) Have each pupil give a memory jfem Thi, 
PuS H ;t --.;— ing and profitab.'e Lrcli 
i^upils like It, and ,t stores their minds with beautifnl 
thoughts and gems to cheer and brighten their future 
Make your opening exercise what it should be and 

sr; i-r.- i-T' ■"■' "" -- .«.» «. L' 



felt all day in your school-room. 



XIIL GOVERNING POWER IN THE TEACHER 

No school can be well organized unless certain regu- 
lations can be enforced. If conditions were ideal, the 
minimum of regulations might suffice ; but conditions are 
not ideal, and we cannot hope for them to be this side 
of the millennium. 

Until much of the perverseness of human nature is 
overcome, and until the homes become ideal homes, a 
part of a teacher's energy must be spent in the enforce- 
ment of regulations. The government which cannot 
enforce its laws loses the respect of its citizens. The pur- 
pose of the school is to be a positive force, an uplifting 
force, in the lives of the pupils. The stronger the teacher, 
the less energy will be expended in the enforcement 
of regulations ; but the pozver of enforcement will be 
there nevertheless. It is this latent reserve power which 
marks the strong teacher. 

There are two styles of order in the school-room, 
which may appropriately be called the' military and the 
natural order. In the first the force is external. Pupils 
may be drilled to clock-like precision in order and move- 
ments. Such work shows off well, and it has many 
strong points. It has, however, many weak points. It 
is frequently superficial, being thrown aside as soon as 
the pupil is out of the teacher's sight. 

The natural order comes from a majority of the 
pupils being enthusiastically engaged in school work. 
They form a public opinion which compels respectful 
and orderly behavior. The impulse comes from within, 

80 



GOVERNING POWER IN THE TEACHER 81 

is born of a purpose on the part of the pupil, and is 
lasting. 

Governing power is the ability to train the pupil to 
the habit of self-control. The teacher may master the 
elements in this power and attain by conscious effort a 
high degree of success. Among the elements of govern- 
ing power may be named — 

1. System. Much of the lack of order in school is 
due to lack of system in the teacher. The factors which 
make up system are time, place, and method. System 
implies a time for everything. Regularity and prompt- 
ness are the pillars of good government. A well-regu- 
lated program which provides congenial employment for 
each pupil at each period in the day, is an excellent foun- 
dation for good government. System means also a 
place for hats, a place for wraps, books in the desk, 
papers folded and placed properly or thrown in the waste 
basket, building and grounds neat and clean, — all these 
show system in the teacher. 

System means 'method in doing everything. Preci- 
sion should characterize all school movements. In calling 
and dismissing classes, and all school exercises, exact- 
ness is desirable. Children thus acquire habits of prompt 
obedience, and learn to move to the rhythm of society. 

2. Energy. The lazy teacher is an intolerable nui- 
sance. Labor is genius. It keeps things moving. It re- 
quires energy, plenty of energy, to keep a school going 
and up to the standard. The lazy teacher lets things 
drag. He makes no preparation for the recitation, and 
gives no illustrations. In sleep-inviting monotones he 
drawls through the weary hours, while disorder reigns 
and mischief flourishes. 

6 



82 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

3. Vigilance. This is the price of the teacher's suc- 
cess. The teacher may be ever so systematic and full 
of energy, but if he is successful in government he must 
know the feelings and purposes of the pupils, and see 
and hear in detail that he may effectively correct. Vigi- 
lance prevents faults, and prevention is better than cor- 
rection. The vigilant teacher watches that he may 
encourage and train, and not to find fault. 

Fault-finding is one of the most pernicious habits. 
The vigilant teacher does not seem to notice a thousand 
little faults, but when attention has once been called to 
a fault, he must never let it recur again without re- 
proof. 

4. Will Pozver. This is the force which moves the 
world. To succeed in anything there must be iron in 
the soul. Management must be uniform and certain. 
System must be strictly enforced. The determined 
teacher will train to orderly habits and efficient work. 
Kindness should temper firmness, but never displace it. 

5. Self-control. This is one of the cardinal virtues 
we must instill into the mind, and it cannot be so effec- 
tively taught as by example. The great generals and 
statesmen have been men who could remain calm under 
adverse circumstances. The teacher who loses his self- 
possession and speaks in tones of trembling anger, is 
far below the ideal teacher, and loses the respect of think- 
ing pupils. He must repress impatience. To yield to 
it is ruin. 

Wesley's mother is said to have told him the same 
thing twenty times, and many of our pupils are little 
Wesleys. The teacher must suppress all antagonism be- 
tween himself and his pupils or patrons. He can do 
this if he has proper control of himself. Cheerfulness is 



GOVERNING POWER IN THE TEACHER 83 

an electric power, and nothing is a greater aid to self- 
control or to the control of wayward pupils than cheer- 
fulness. Cultivate it, and never under any circumstances 
let pupils know they can annoy you. 

6. Self-confidence. This is a potent power. The 
world stands aside to let him pass who knows whither 
he is going. By self-confidence I do not mean egotism. 
Confidence in your own power to meet the emergency 
when this emergency comes, prevents worry. It gains 
the confidence of pupils. Have confidence in your pupils. 
Trust them, and they will seldom betray your trust. 

7. Good Judgment. Good judgment in administer- 
ing punishment is a strong point in school government. 
The object of punishment is to lead the pupil to see and 
feel his fault and to strive to correct it. The stronger 
the teacher is in other elements of governing power, the 
less frequent will he have to punish. Injudicious punish- 
ment makes pupils disrespect the teacher, while proper 
punishment should increase the pupils' love and respect 
for him. 

8. Cidtnre. This is a powerful agency in government. 
It includes not only the culture of the mind, but the 
culture of manners and of the voice as well. Thorough 
scholarship is indispensable, but proper manners are also 
essential to success. Very often the best of teachers are 
rendered incompetent by eccentricities of manner and 
dress. The voice is a most potent factor in the govern- 
ment of pupils. A well-modulated voice, musical tones, 
and proper emphasis hold pupils and quiet them, while 
sharp, gutteral tones excite to misconduct. 

p. Love. The teacher who does not have a genuine 
love for children and young people should quit the school- 



84 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

room, and do it promptly. Love wins love. It wins 
pupils and patrons, but it must be genuine. When com- 
bined with judicious executive ability, it will govern a 
school better than all the arbitrary rules which could be 
enumerated. 

The cold, despotic teacher may enforce quiet and 
compel pupils to get good lessons, but his tyranny creates 
an atmosphere in which all hateful passions are fostered. 

10. Teaching Power. This enables the teacher to 
enlist and direct all the energies of the pupil. A small 
per cent, of good scholars are good teachers. To teach 
is to arouse, to interest, to direct, and to cause to know. 
Good teachers magnetize pupils and make them desire 
to study. Earnest work makes it easy to maintain order. 

The teacher who will study his defects, and try to 
strengthen his weak points, may learn to govern. It 
requires tact, common sense, skill, and a persistent effort 
to grow strong in the power to govern a school, but it 
can be done. 



XIV. SCHOOL REGULATIONS 

As system is the first element of governing power 
in the teacher, so it is the first condition of good govern- 
ment. The old-time schoolmaster was all rules and 
rod. He made a list of the offenses and the penalties. 
These are of the past, but we must not go to the other 
extreme. Some regulations are necessary, and are based 
upon sound principles. 

1. Rules should be few. The test of a rule should 
be its reasonableness in securing the ultimate purpose of 
a school — obedient, happy, intelligent citizens. 

2. Rules should be general and such as apply to all 
pupils. Special penalties should be rare. 

3. The regulations of a school should be so rational 
that they will command the hearty support of teachers, 
pupils, and patrons. The teacher must take account of 
his surroundings. Rules of ever so much importance in 
a Boston school might not meet the conditions of a school 
in New Mexico. All rules must be practicable, or they 
are worse than useless. 

4. All school regulations should be educational, and 
tend to form right habits. If the school is to train for 
life, its regulations should instil right habits. 

5. School regulations should be positive. The rules 
formerly were a list of " Thou shalt nots." Far better 
and far more effective would be a list of judicious and 
well-enforced " Thou shalts." 

85 



86 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

Upon these principles are based a few regulations 
accepted by all good teachers and lying at the very foun- 
dation of a successful school. They are (i) regularity, 
(2) promptness, (3) proper decorum, (4) quietness — 
not death-like stillness, (5) communication made through 
the teacher, (6) morality. These virtues instilled in the 
life of pupils will bear fruit, and bring a bountiful harvest 
from the sowing of the school-room. 

The regulations enumerated are the fruit of expe- 
rience in the school-room. They must be enforced if the 
school is to be near the ideal. Cheerful obedience is the 
object to be sought, but obedience at any price. 

I. Irregularity is one of the most serious evils. It 
is the every-day work which counts. Make the school 
attractive. Make the pupils feel that each day is of great 
value. Teach well. Interest parents. Show them how 
it is that irregular pupils become discouraged because 
they get behind. Urge regularity as a duty, and if pupils 
are irregular simply from indolence, punish as you would 
for any other thing detrimental to school work. 

2'. Promptness. Let the teacher set the example. 
He should be at school at least half an hour before time 
to begin. Train to habits of promptness. Enforce it 
in all school matters until the habit is formed. Use good 
judgment. There are exceptional cases where pupils 
cannot be on time. 

J. Decorum. Positions, movements, dress, manners, 
and conduct must be considered. In all these the teacher 
should be the model. The real worth and power of a 
teacher may be judged more from the decorum of the 
pupils than from any other one thing. 



SCHOOL REGULATIONS 87 

4. Quietness. Be quiet yourself, and then make quiet- 
ness imperative. Many schools are noisy because the 
teachers are fussy, noisy, and boisterous. Talk in low, 
even tones, move quietly, and avoid all clapping, pound- 
ing, or heavy walking. Secure quietness from principle 
rather than from fear. The best test is the conduct of 
the pupils when the teacher leaves the room.' We often 
find teachers who enforce a death-like stillness in the 
room, but if they chance to leave the room for a few 
minutes, pandemonium reigns. Never permit boister- 
ousness in the school-room at any time. Much of the 
noise in the school-room has its birth in racing and 
boisterousness at recess and before school. Train pupils 
to think of the school-room as a busy workshop where 
all is order and decorum. Some may require punish- 
ment; if so, be mild and gentle, but punish as for any 
other offense. 

5. Communication. Three fourths of the worry of 
the school-room will be avoided if all communications 
are made through 'the teacher. Be firm from the first 
day. Appeal to principle, say " No " firmly. Anticipate 
and prevent. Seat pupils where they will have the most 
favorable influences. Train pupils to habits of non- 
communication. Inflict proper punishment, and see to 
it at all hazards that there is no communication, and all 
will run well. 

6. Morality. This is the most important lesson taught 
in school. The teacher should be the very embodiment 
of morality. His impulses must be pure and elevating. 
His character must be such that it will instill into the 
pupils a love of right and a hatred of wrong. The 
teacher must be positive also in his teaching of morality. 



88 • MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

Attack one vice at a time, and turn your attention to 
it until it is broken up. Then attack another. Teach 
pupils to be truthful. Appeal to conscience. Morality 
has its basis in the conscience of the individual. You 
have not taught the child to be moral until his con- 
science cries out distinctly, " I ought." Conscience is a 
rational motive, and impels us to do what we think is 
right, and forbids us to do what we think is wrong. 

" An approving conscience is the smile of God ; re- 
m.orse, his frown." Sincerity should characterize every 
act of the teacher. Honesty, purity, and justice should 
run through his whole make-up. Any system of instruc- 
tion which stops short of a virtuous character in the indi- 
vidual is a failure. To produce intelligent, conscientious 
men — men in whom appetite, passion, selfishness, and 
weakness yield to the mandates of conscience — is the 
grand end of education. Let us look carefully to our 
teaching, that it tends to this high aim. 



XV. SCHOOL PUNISHMENT 

There is a difference in the purposes of punishment 
in the school-room and in the state. In the school-room 
punishment seeks to correct and to reform the individual. 
The state may punish to avenge a wrong, to satisfy jus- 
tice, or to serve as an example to others. The school 
deals with immature minds and irresponsible beings ; the 
state deals with mature minds and responsible beings, 
capable of weighing and judging. 

By punishment we mean a penalty imposed by some 
one in authority for some wrong act. The penalty may 
be mental or physical. Physical punishment may be used 
upon children when other means fail, or when the child 
is still undeveloped in judgment. Parents must, as a 
rule, occasionally use physical punishment as a means 
of correcting their children because they are lacking in 
the judgment of riper years and yet must be taught 
to mind. 

The greatest punishment is that which touches the 
soul. Physical pain is temporary, but mental pain may 
last for a lifetime. There are wounds deeper than any 
rod can inflict, wounds which do not heal, the wounds 
of sarcasm, suspicion, treachery, and misconception. 
Teachers must guard themselves against these deeper 
punishments, unjustly administered, which will rankle 
in the bosom of the child throughout life. 

The subject of punishment is one of importance. No 
teacher should teach school without having given much 
thought to it. He cannot plan in advance just what to 

89 



90 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

do and how to act upon a given occasion. However, he 
may study the principles of the subject in general, and 
then the details will be more easily and more intelligently 
applied. What punishments to inflict, when to punish, 
and how to punish, are questions of vital importance. 
The following principles should guide in punishment : — 

1. Punishments should he reformatory and never 
7/indictive. Punishments should be for the benefit of the 
one punished. Even in the state there is a growing ten- 
dency to make punishments more and more reformatory 
and less vindictive. In school the good of the individual 
punished should be the paramount consideration. 

2. Punishment should ahvays foster self-control and 
self-respect. Self-government alone is worthy of an in- 
telligent man. The punishment which does not stimulate 
the wrong-doer to forsake the wrong and do the right, is 
a failure. Any punishment which crushes manhood is 
fiendish. 

J. Punishment should be the natuml consequence of 
the offense. Such punishments are corrective. The re- 
lation of the punishment to the ofifense should be studied 
carefully before it is administered. 

4. Punishments must ahvays he reasonable, hut cer- 
tain. Punishments which are too severe arouse sym- 
pathy for the one punished, and lose much of their good 
effect. Mild punishments are most effective if they are 
certain to follow wrong doing. 

5. Punishments should he inflicted deliherately. Hasty 
punishments are seldom effective. Both teacher and 
pupil should have time for reflection, when possible. 



SCHOOL PUNISHMENT 91 

There may be times of open insult when punishments 
must be prompt to be effective, but with wise management 
such occasions are rare. Parents and teachers must 
guard against rash and hasty punishments. 

6. The teacher must punish with regret. Sympathy 
for the offender adds to the effectiveness of the punish- 
ment, provided the sympathy is not of the sort that 
excuses rather than punishes. The child knows when 
the teacher suffers for and with him, and this is one 
of the uplifting forces in the child's life. It is true that 
the principle of vicarious suffering is the root of all 
spiritual healing. 

/. All punishment should he made an educative 
means. It should be at all times corrective. It should 
bring the pupil to a sense of wrong doing, else it is 
worthless. The severest punishment is without effect 
unless the pupil feels deep down in his own conscious- 
ness that he has done wrong. Every punishment must 
be a means to an end, the end being an improvement in 
the pupil's conduct. 

Bentham has clearly stated some of the principles 
pertaining to punishment as follows : — 

( 1 ) " The punishment following an offense should 
exceed the apparent advantage derived from its being 
committed." 

(2) " The greater the offense, the greater should be 
the pains taken to secure its punishments." 

(3) " Punishment should never be greater than is 
needed to prevent a repetition of the offense." 

(4) " Regard should be paid to the sensibility of the 
offender, as dependent on age, sex, position, health, etc." 



92 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

(5) " Punishments should be increased in magnitude 
as the detection of the offense is uncertain or remote." 

(6) '* When the offense is not an isolated act, but an 
act indicating the existence of a habit, the punishment 
should outweigh the apparent advantages, not merely of 
the act, but of the habit." 

A judicious punishment is one which tends to 
strengthen in the child a love for right and a hatred for 
wrong. Punishments must consider many things. What 
is effective with one may fail with another. The teach- 
er's judgment of human nature must direct what pun- 
ishment will be effective in a given case. Among the 
most effective punishments may be named, — 

1. Reproof. This will correct a majority of offenses. 
The earnestness of the teacher gives weight to the re- 
proof. When similar offenses have been committed by 
several pupils, the teacher may reprove in a general way 
without mentioning names. If it is an individual or a 
few individuals and of a nature that it does not affect 
the school as a whole, private reproof is best. In nearly 
all cases a short talk in private will be effective. The oc- 
casion may arise when the reproof must be administered 
before the school. In such cases the teacher must not 
mistake the individual, and must be judicious, else un- 
pleasant scenes may take place. 

2. Privation. After reproof, this is perhaps the next 
best punishment. This should follow as a natural con- 
sequence of the offense. The pupil is to be deprived of 
the thing or the liberty which he has abused. It may be 
a seat, the recess, a recitation, a class position, or certain 
privileges. 



SCHOOL PUNISHMENT 93 

J. Deportment Records. Monthly reports are pow- 
erful levers for right conduct as well as for good work. 
We speak of their use, and not of their abuse. The 
monthly report should give the teacher's careful and 
honest estimate of the pupil's work and conduct. With 
the good teacher no force is more potent for right be- 
havior. It is an open estimate each month wherein the 
pupil may read his conduct as the teacher sees it. 

4. Suspension. In nearly all cases reproof and priva- 
tion are all the punishments needed in school. Occa- 
sionally suspension, expulsion, and corporal punishment 
must be resorted to. The stronger the teacher, the more 
systematic and vigorous the government, the less occa- 
sion will be found for such punishments. When the 
occasion comes, the teacher must have the courage to 
use it. Suspension may result in good to the pupil sus- 
pended as well as to the school. Good judgment must 
be used to indicate when suspension is necessary, and 
for how long to suspend, and how the pupil may be 
restored. Among, the causes of suspension may be 
named insubordination, gross misconduct, chronic irreg- 
ularity without just cause, little offenses continually re- 
peated but hard to classify, and general worthlessness. 
The school is a workshop, and no pupil who is doing 
no good for himself must be permitted to ruin a school. 

5. Expulsion. In rare cases, expulsion is necessary. 
This is the act of the board of education, and riot of 
the teacher. It should be seldom necessary. A frank 
talk to the parents by the teacher, after all hope of re- 
forming the pupil has vanished, will usually secure the 
withdrawal of the pupil without the formal act of ex- 
pulsion. The school board should sustain the authority 



94 MANAGBMBNT AND METHODS 

of the teacher in all right rulings, and the bully who per- 
sists in annoying the school should be dealt with effec- 
tively, even if it leads to expulsion. The expulsion of a 
pupil who is doing no good in school is far better than 
to allow the pupil to waste the time of thirty or forty 
other pupils. 

It must be remembered, however, that the best teach- 
ers seldom find bad pupils. 

One of the greatest teachers of my acquaintance, after 
thirty years' experience in the work of the reform school, 
during which time his work and influence has touched 
and redeemed hundreds of wayward boys, affirms delib- 
erately that there are no bad boys if we know how to 
direct their energies. Pupils give us largely what we 
expect. The actions of many teachers are so contempt- 
ible that pupils are almost justified in being bad. They 
prowl about with suspicion, watching pupils, and hunting 
trouble. They punish without reason. They constantly 
nag. They threaten, they bully, they seek to hurt and 
ridicule pupils. The little boy was not far wrong, who, 
upon being asked why the teacher punished him, replied, 
" Because he was the biggest." 

Justice does not demand that every pupil be punished 
alike, even for the same offense. Lottie and Ford were 
brother and sister. Two years' experience with numer- 
ous trials found no punishment, mental or physical, which 
affected Ford five minutes. For laughing, the teacher 
pointed his finger in a shaming manner at Lottie, and 
she sobbed bitterly for an hour. Had both committed 
the same offense, would the same punishment have been 
justifiable? 

Let your effort be to discipline with the least possible 
punishment, but when occasion demands and nothing 



SCHOOL PUNISHMENT 95 

else will do, punish, even to severity. Avoid indignities, 
such as slapping or boxing the ears, pulling the nose or 
the hair, or striking the head. If corporal punishment 
must be inflicted, use a switch, a strap, or a small paddle. 
Administer it slowly, calmly, quietly, but effectively. 
When the punishment is over, do not dismiss the pupil 
until you have talked over quietly and dispassionately the 
offense and the reason for the punishment. Most pun- 
ishments fail because they are done hastily and in an- 
ger, and then pupils are dismissed while yet white with 
rage. If the judge sentenced the criminal with the same 
degree of warmth and passion, and the sheriff executed 
the sentence with the haste and anger many teachers show 
in administering punishment, our courts would be less 
effective than they are. 

The best teachers govern so effectively that little pun- 
ishment is needed. 



XVI. MOVEMENT OF CLASSES 

The larger the school, the more red tape will be re- 
quired. Any large business requires system. Red tape 
should never be used for its own sake. Little is needed 
in a small district school with one teacher, but in graded 
schools with several teachers some of it is necessary. In 
fact, no school can get along without some of it. How 
much? This question can be answered by any teacher 
by referring to the principle that the purpose of school 
management is to bring the mind of the teacher and the 
mind of the pupil into the closest possible contact. 

More teachers fail in management than in the teach- 
ing process. System and order in management aid the 
teaching process. Tyranny in the school-room is to be 
avoided always, but of the two evils tyranny is pref- 
erable to anarchy. 

I once knew a teacher — a graduate of a famous 
normal school — in whose school-room chaos ruled su- 
preme. Pupils rushed into the room, talking, laughing, 
boxing, jumping, and were never quiet. When classes 
were called, pupils raced and crowded, to get to certain 
favorite places. As one class was dismissed, the next 
class came rushing into the recitation seat, all talking, 
crowding, rushing, pell-mell, hurry-scurry. To observe 
it without considering the serious side, nothing could be 
more ludicrous. Pupils frequently climbed over the back 
of the recitation seat. Half a dozen pupils would come to 
ask the teacher about this and that while he was hearing 
a recitation. Such a teacher might get results in a 

96 



MOVEMENT OF CLASSES 97 

small district school where he did not have to work in 
harmony with other teachers, but even then the results 
must be meager compared with what they would be un- 
der normal conditions. In a district school, if a recess 
is not on time, the chances are that few of the pupils 
will know it, but where there are other teachers, all must 
work on schedule time. 

The rules of school should be based upon princi- 
ples, always remembering that there should be but few 
rules, and that these should be rigidly enforced. 

1. Rides must be uniform. In a school with more 
than one teacher, most regulations must be vmiform. Let 
the teacher of one room be lax in government, and it 
affects the whole school organization. Pupils are quick 
to notice differences, and if one teacher permits certain 
conduct and another does not, the pupils of the latter are 
apt to think they are unjustly treated. There must be 
unity in enforcing many necessary regulations or the 
school will suffer. 

2. Rules must be necessary. Nothing for show alone. 
However, some things which may seem mere show to 
the outsider are of great help to school government. For 
example, absolute quiet just before dismissing with a 
quiet, orderly leaving of the school grounds in the after- 
noon, is a great step toward controlling a school. It 
seems to be a tonic which stimulates the better nature 
of the pupils, and sends them home in a better mood. 
If possible, let pupils leave school feeling happy. 

J. AH signals must be definite. There should be few 
signals, but each signal should indicate a definite move- 
ment. 



98 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

4. Tone of voice. Signals should be given in a fall- 
ing inflection, and the movements should be executed 
quickly and quietly. Voice has much to do with gov- 
erning a school. Commands should be given gently, 
firmly, and the teacher from the very depths of his soul 
must expect his commands to be obeyed. Loud com- 
mands or those given in the form of questions, as if 
the teacher doubted whether they would be obeyed or 
not, are disorder breeders. Movements should promptly 
follow a command, and these movements should be quiet 
and orderly. However, extremes should be avoided. 
Pupils should be taught to walk quietly but naturally. 
It is unnecessary for them to walk on tiptoe. What is 
more comical, and at the same time more distressing, than 
to see a large, overgrown, awkward boy, a boy who 
would not under any circumstances knowingly annoy 
a teacher, cross the floor with a motion similar to a 
gimlet going through a board. 

5. Signals should precede class movements. No 
movements of classes should be permitted until the proper 
signals have been given. This is necessary or confusion 
follows. Time must be given for the execution of the 
movement before the next signal is given. Teachers 
often, when time is short, give the signals, " Ready," 
" Rise," " Pass," so rapidly that the class cannot pos- 
sibly execute them, and the result is disorganizing. 
Never permit disobedience, carelessness, or slovenliness. 
One pupil may soon disorganize a class. 

Now let us apply these principles to the movements 
in the school-room. 

I. Ringing the bell. This should be done by the 
teacher, the principal of a graded school, or the janitor. 



MOVEMENT OF CLASSES 99 

CALUNG SCHOOL. 

Two or three taps of the bell, if it be a large bell, or a 
vigorous ring of the hand bell, means that all play must 
stop, and that pupils are to arrange in lines preparatory 
to passing to the room. This should be done promptly, 
and when formed and all is quiet, at -a signal tap of the 
bell the lines pass quietly and orderly to the rooms. Give 
time between the ringing of the first bell and the tap 
of the bell for the lines to pass, for all the pupils to as- 
semble. Do not permit lagging. Do not ring a tardy 
bell. It only encourages pupils to lag behind until the 
last chance. 

2. Attention. When pupils are seated quietly, at tap 
of call-bell or pencil the attention of the pupils is di- 
rected to the opening exercises or the work of the day. 
Do not demand attention, but expect it, and so conduct 
yourself that you will receive it. The governing power 
of a teacher may be correctly judged by observing the 
calling of school and the opening exercises. 

DISMISSING SCHOOL. 

Nothing is better in its general effects upon a school 
than order in dismissing it. It is the dessert or pastry 
which follows the meal, and leaves a pleasant flavor of 
the day's work. 

1. Let all books be placed in the desk quietly and 
orderly at a given signal. See that all scraps of paper, 
pencil sharpenings, etc., are removed from the desk and 
floor. 

2. Have pupils sit erect — not stiffly — and give re- 
spectful attention. If you have announcements to make, 
be brief and to the point. 



100 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

3. Never hurry. The greatest mistake the teacher 
can make is to hurry and dismiss because pupils are rest- 
less. This is the one time in the day when the teacher 
has the decided advantage of the pupils, and he can afford 
to be deliberate. From first to last, pupils should know 
that quiet and order precedes dismission. 

4. Let pupils march quietly and orderly from the 
buildings and grounds. 

CAUSING AND DISMISSING CLASSES. 

Many teachers use the signals " One," *' Two," 
'' Three," for calling and dismissing classes, some use 
the call-bell, and some use '' Ready," '' Rise," " Pass." 
Whatever is used should be used rigidly, and every sig- 
nal should be obeyed. 

1. ''One." The class get ready. Until the pupils 
are familiar with the program, the teacher may name the 
class before giving the signal. 

2. "" Tivo." The class stand with the necessary 
books and papers for the recitation. 

3. '' Three." The class pass orderly to the recita- 
tion seat and when all are ready they are seated. Let 
them be seated in recitation in the order in which they 
came from their seats. This avoids confusion and en- 
ables the teacher usually to separate two chums or con- 
genial spirits, and this may add much to the value of the 
recitation. 

Let the teacher be the example in system, order, and 
neatness. It requires only clear ideals of what to do 
and persistent efforts to enforce these. He must know 
what to do, why he does it, and then have grit enough 
to see that it is done. But it pays. It will save nerve 



MOVEMENT OF CLASSES 101 

force, it will save worry. It will bring a feeling of satis- 
faction, of work well done. It will train pupils into good 
habits, and bring the best of results, both mentally and 
morally. 



XVII. BASIC PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 

The principles of teaching are based upon, — 

1. The nature of mind. 

2. The nature of knowledge. 

3. The nature of instruction. 

These principles, stated as they may be in a variety 
of ways, underlie all good teaching, and are applicable to 
any subject. The teacher will find that nothing is a better 
regulator or safety-valve to his teaching than a frequent 
reference of his methods and devices back to first prin- 
ciples. Let him often catechize himself, " Why do I do 
this ? " '' Why do I do this in this way ? " " How 
could I justify this or that way of doing a thing?'*' '' Is 
this or that the best method, and why ? " " Why was 
it John could not understand that problem ? " Very of- 
ten, when the teacher questions himself carefully and 
honestly, he will improve, and in a short time get better 
results. Let us formulate some of these principles under 
the headings given above. 

PRINCIPLES BASED UPON THE NATURE OF MIND. 

I. Culture is the primary object of teaching. Cul- 
ture is the result of mental discipline, and is of more 
value than knowledge. It gives the power to acquire 
knowledge, and this power is worth more to us than the 
knowledge we have already acquired. It gives also the 
power to originate other knowledge, and to invent new 
ideas and thoughts. Without culture the mind is a re- 
ceptacle into which may be thrown thoughts and ideas ; 
with culture these may be arranged and transformed into 

102 



BASIC PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 



103 



active energy. Knowledge will make a learned man, 
but culture alone can make a wise man. 

The teacher should never lose sight of this primary 
object of teaching. It is not the solution of individual 
problems of arithmetic that we seek, nor the demonstra- 
tion of certain propositions of geometry. Long after 
the rules of arithmetic have been forgotten and long after 
you have forgotten certain demonstrations in geometry 
and scores of Latin endings, there will remain a resid- 
uum, a power, a mental discipline, which we call cul- 
ture, and this is of far greater importance than the mere 
facts themselves. The teacher should know the relation 
of each subject of study to the mental capacities of his 
pupils, and seek to make each subject contribute its full 
share to the culture of the child. A neglect of this duty 
on the part of the teacher has dwarfed and warped and 
stunted many a child's mind in our schools. 

2. Exercise is the fundamental law of growth. This 
law is as true of mind as of muscle. The arm grows 
strong through exercise. The leg of the pedestrian ac- 
quires size and power by use. Lack of exercise makes 
flabby muscles. In the same way every faculty of the 
mind is developed and strengthened by' exercise. The 
power of perception grows by exercise in perceiving; the 
power of memory, by remembering; the power of 
thought, by thinking, etc. Let the powers of mind go 
unused, and mental flabbiness will result as quickly as 
muscular flabbiness when the muscles are not exercised. 
The unused mind is unfit for prolonged effort. It soon 
rusts mentally, and becomes worthless. Thousands of 
minds rust out from idleness, inaction, and want of use • 
the mind never wears out from use as long as the 
physical man is in good health. 



104 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

J. The perceptive ponders are the doors to the child's 
mind, and must he kept open. These powers are most 
active in childhood. All mental activity has its begin- 
nings in the senses. The child lives in its eyes, its ears, 
and its fingers, and it delights to see and to hear and 
to feel. Its eyes and ears are open, and its fingers al- 
ways ready for mischief. It is the first duty of the 
teacher to direct this activity, and to give food to the 
senses. It seeks for expression in actions as well as 
in words. It needs objects for its instruction, and facts 
rather than abstract truths for mental development. It 
needs to see and feel and handle objects for itself, and 
later it will have the taste and the capacity for abstract 
thoughts ; but to force them upon it now is to cause 
the worst form of mental dyspepsia. 

4. The child's memory for facts and zvords is strong 
in early childhood. This fact should not be ignored by 
the teacher. The objects come to the mind through the 
senses with such freshness that they are fixed indelibly 
in the memory. Words and facts stick in the child's 
mind as naturally as burrs to the sheep's coat. Its mem- 
ory for words and things is wonderful. A little girl 
four years old, the daughter of a college professor, uses 
such words as " examination," '' manuscript," " labora- 
tory," etc., correctly and with ease. Seated at the table 
one cloudy afternoon, the sun suddenly broke through 
the clouds, and gilded the room. Her father quoted 
Tennyson's beautiful lines : — 

" The splendor falls on castle walls 
And snowy summits old in story; 
The long light shakes across the lakes, 
And the wild cataract leaps in glory." 



BASIC PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 105 

No comment followed. Some time later the sun 
shone out again in much the same way, and Esther quoted 
the lines accurately. A new word once distinctly heard 
is apt to be a permanent possession. A child will soon 
learn to talk in several languages if it associates with 
children who speak different languages. The teacher 
should give the child an opportunity to store its mind 
early with facts of science and to acquire a rich and 
copious vocabulary. 

5. The careful traming of the memory should not he 
neglected. The mind works according to mental law in 
retaining and recalling knowledge. It ties facts and in- 
cidents together — unconsciously perhaps, but strongly 
— by threads of association. These facts are made into 
clusters or groups, and bound into a unit by the bands 
of association. The teacher should understand the prin- 
cipal laws of association — the law of similarity, the law 
of contrast, the law of cause and effect, and the law of 
contiguity in time and place, — and teach pupils to link 
their knowledge together by these chains. He will find 
numerous opportunities and find them in all subjects. 
In geography he should teach the children to associate 
similar facts about cities and States. In history, events 
may be associated by contiguity of time and place as 
well as by cause and effect. All the knowledge taught 
should be so thoroughly systematized that it may be read- 
ily recalled by logical or topical relations. 

6, The imagination should not be neglected. This 
is the power of forming ideal creations, and is very 
strong in childhood. It is made active through the me- 
dium of perception. The facts perceived by the senses 
stimulate the fancy and arouse it into activity. The beau- 



106 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

ties of nature, the evening sunset, the bending blue sky, 
and the broad landscape find a resting place in the mem- 
ory, and lingering there these forms of beauty stimulate 
new creations. With many children, fact and fancy 
become so interwoven that they do not discriminate be- 
tween the two. The teacher in such cases should train 
the faculty into right channels, and seek to develop it 
into healthy and normal activity. Often children are 
untruthful from being unable to discriminate between 
the things remembered and the things imagined, and 
such cases need the careful attention of both parents 
and teacher. 

7. The mind of the child should he led from concrete 
to abstract ideas. The child mind begins with the con- 
crete. It first learns objects and their qualities, and its 
first ideas are perceptions of things it can see, feel, 
hear, and taste. These ideas are not abstracted from, 
but associated with, the object itself. After repeated 
occurrence of the object with the perception together, 
it begins to perceive independently of the object, and 
thus gradually its mind rises to abstract ideas. From 
objects it gets its ideas of color, from hard objects it 
gets its idea of hardness, from the kindness of friends 
and parents it gets its ideas of aflfection and kindness. 
This gradual growth from the concrete to the abstract 
should be carefully watched by the teacher and aided. 
He must be careful not to lift the child into abstractions 
too soon, nor keep him too long on the concrete. Con- 
crete examples should be presented first in the pre- 
sentation of any subject, and the teacher should know 
that the pupil has assimilated these before he pushes 
on into the abstract. One of the ever-present duties 
of the teacher is to aid the pupil from things to thoughts. 



BASIC PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 107 

8. The mind gro2cs from the particular to the general. 
The first idea is of a particular object. It is considerably 
later before it reaches the general notion. The child 
knows its own dog a long time before it has the gen- 
eral notion dog. Bird to the child is a particular bird ; 
kitty is a particular kitty ; horse is a particular horse. 
Gradually it rises from the particular object to the gen- 
eral, from a percept to a concept. It is the teacher's 
duty during the school life of the child to watch and 
aid this growth in every way possible. It marks dis- 
tinctly the class of person and the mental development. 
Our great organizers are men who can grasp the gen- 
eral thoughts and see great principles behind particular 
things. On the other hand, the teacher must not force 
this growth before the child's mind is ready for it. To 
force the general upon the child's mind before it is pre- 
pared is to teach words only. 

p. The child reasons first inductively and then de- 
ductively. This is the natural law of mental develop- 
ment. The particular facts of the senses are the child's 
first thoughts, and from these it rises gradually to gen- 
eral truths. After the mind has been impressed time 
after time and through induction reached a number of 
general truths, the process then may often be reversed, 
and particular truths deduced from general principles. 
The mind also begins to apply the self-evident truths 
or axioms to the thoughts which grow out of them. 
This order of development of the mind should be under- 
stood by the teacher, and his work of teaching done ac- 
cordingly. He should especially avoid the too common 
error of introducing deductive reasoning too early. 

10. The teacher should aid the child in obtaining clear 
conceptions of intuitive ideas and truths. The mental 



108 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

life of the child begins in the senses, and its first ideas 
and truths are those which pertain to the material world. 
Later the intuition awakens into activity, and the ideas 
and truths of reason begin to dawn. Here the teacher, 
if he is watchful, may help the child. He may do much 
to develop clear conceptions of space, time, cause, the 
true, the beautiful, and the good. He may readily make 
occasions for presenting or developing these ideas, and 
aid the pupil in reaching these self-evident truths by par- 
ticular examples and suitable questions. Some of the 
axioms of number also are awakened in the mind quite 
early, and the teacher can do much to develop them. 

PRINCIPLKS BASED UPON THE NATURE O^ KNOWLEDGE. 

/. The second object of teaching is to impart knowl- 
edge to the pupil. The educated person must have cer- 
tain knowledge. While the power of acquisition may 
be the primary object of education, it is impossible to 
conceive of this power being properly developed without 
having stored the mind with many useful facts. We 
could not think of a child mastering the subject of men- 
suration as treated in our arithmetics without having in 
mind certain facts. We would rightly question the 
teaching of United States history if pupils could not tell 
us something of Washington and Jefferson and Lincoln, 
and of Bunker Hill and New Orleans and Gettysburg. 

Knowing how to think may stand first, but it will 
not suffice. There must be certain facts and knowledge 
in mind upon which the thoughts are based. The sub- 
ject of cramming has been rightfully condemned, but it is 
the abuse of it, and not the use, which should be con- 
demned. Every well-ordered mind, every educated per- 



BASIC PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 109 

son, has stores of facts well organized and assimilated, 
all ready for use at any time. The teacher should never 
neglect to fill the minds of the pupils with the facts of 
history, geography, science, language, and mathematics, 
— suitable facts, logically grouped, — and hold up to 
them high ideals of scholarship and instil into them by 
example and precept an ambition for wide and accurate 
learning. 

2. Things should precede zvords. This principle is in 
harmony with the natural development of knowledge. 
Objects existed long before words. The word was in- 
troduced to designate the object. The genesis of knowl- 
edge should be the order of imparting knowledge, and 
this is in harmony with the laws of mental development. 
The teacher often violates this principle by having pupils 
recite words, words, nothing but words, without knowing 
what they mean. How often pupils commit definition 
after definition without the slightest understanding of their 
real meaning. Such a practice is decidedly pernicious in 
its influence on th^ mind. It leads to wrong habits 
of thought, and the child soon learns to be satisfied with 
the mere symbols of ideas. He is satisfied with the 
husk instead of the grain, and instead of a healthy de- 
sire for knowledge and a growing understanding his 
intellectual powers are dwarfed, and he is disgusted with 
the effort to study. 

J. Ideas should precede truths. This law, like the 
last, is in accord with the natural law of acquisition and 
mental development. Ideas exist in the mind before 
there are judgments or thoughts. There is an idea of 
hook and of desk in the mind before it thinks the hock 
is on the desk. In arithmetic and geometry, and in the 



110 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

other sciences, the ideas presented in the definitions are 
learned before the truths which pertain to them. Ideas 
are the product of perception and conception,, while 
thoughts are the product of reason and judgment. Per- 
ception and conception precede reason and judgment, 
hence these laws are manifest from the nature of mind. 
The teacher should seek to fill the mind with ideas both 
concrete and abstract, and then to teach the truths which 
belong to them. 

4. Particular ideas should he taught before general 
ideas. This principle is in harmony with the genesis 
of knowledge and the nature of mental activity. Our 
first ideas are of particular objects. These we derive 
through the senses. Later come the abstract and gen- 
eral notions derived from the understanding. The child 
has the idea of the particular house before it has con- 
ceived the general idea house. It knows several partic- 
ular houses before it reaches the general of a class of 
houses. This order is frequently violated in the teaching 
process. We seek to give clear general ideas when the 
child has no clear particular ideas. We ask the child 
to remember that nearly all the lakes of North America lie 
in a certain line when he has no conception of an in- 
dividual lake. One of the best teaching mottoes is, " Go 
from the particular idea to the general." 

- •5. Facts should precede principles. Most of our text- 
books of late introduce a new subject inductively. 
When we have called up what the child knows, and 
run our fingers, as it were, about the edges of its knowl- 
edge, we know where we stand. So when the facts 
stand out clearly, then we may bind them together by 
principle. 



BASIC PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 111 

A fact is a truth in the reahii of sense. A principle 
is a truth in the reahii of thought. The former is con- 
crete, the latter abstract ; and as a rule the concrete should 
be taught first. A fact is derived from the operation of 
perception or judgment, and a principle is the product 
of an act of reasoning; and perception should precede 
judgment. Facts are particular truths, principles are 
general truths ; and in the teaching process, particular 
truths should precede general. The principles of 
science are deduced from individual facts. In teaching 
the individual, facts should be taught before the principles 
can be deduced. To reverse the process is to destroy the 
best results of science teaching. 

6. In the teaching of the physical sciences, cause 
should precede law. Science is organized or classified 
knowledge. This knowledge is built up from an exam- 
ination of the individual facts. The natural method of 
teaching the subjects is along the line of the original 
development of the subject. In our mental development 
the cause is soughf before the laws. One of the first 
questions of the child is, '' What makes that ? " The 
order of inquiry is, "" What is it? " for the child ; " Hoiv 
is it? " for boys and girls ; '' Why is it? " for youth ; and 
'" Whence is itf " for maturity. Long after the child has 
satisfied its mind as to "duhat, it begins to question the 
laws which control the facts. 

In the development of the race, also, men sought the 
cause of physical phenomena before the laws. Long, 
long ago men searched for the causes of phenomena in 
natural philosophy and in astronomy, being satisfied if 
they found the mere cause while the discovery of the laws 
or even the search for them is of comparatively recent 



112 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

date. Then it is well known that the law itself is often 
easily reached when an accurate knowledge of the causes 
is at hand. To the teacher who will examine the subject 
it will be plain that in nearly all cases good pedagogy will 
teach the cause of facts before the laws which govern 
these facts. 

7. Scientific classification should he taught after an 
investigation of both the cause and the law of physical 
phenomena. This law, like the one above, is in harmony 
with the law of mental growth as well as with the genesis 
of knowledge in these sciences. The mind can grasp 
facts, principles, and laws before it is capable of the 
broad and inclusive generalizations of nature, some of 
which have immortalized our great scientists of recent 
years. These last require a mental grasp and breadth of 
view too large for school-boys' minds. Here again we 
find the law in harmony with the development of human 
knowledge. The profound classifications are of recent 
date, while the facts and principles have been known 
and studied for centuries. 

8. The elements of the inductive sciences should be 
taught before the deductive sciences. In the inductive 
sciences the elements are the facts and phenomena. Based 
upon these, reached by inductive reasoning, are the prin- 
ciples, laws, causes, and systems of classification. We 
acquire the facts and phenomena through perception, and 
the child mind may readily acquire many of the facts 
before it can generalize on them. These come naturally 
to the mind before the ideas of the deductive sciences. 
However, it is only the facts and the elements which 
should precede the deductive sciences, for it is harder 
for the mind to grasp the laws and causes from a con- 



BASIC PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 113 

sideration of a number of individual facts, than it is to 
accept a general law and from this law deduce a number 
of elementary facts. This would indicate that the sim- 
ple elementary facts of inductive science, but only these, 
should be taught before the deductive sciences. 

p. A deeper or more formal study of the deductive 
sciences then should precede a further study of the induc- 
tive. This order arises from knowledge and its relation 
to mind. The facts of the inductive sciences are presented 
to the mind as early as those of the deductive, but the 
latter are more easily understood by the immature mind. 
The judgments in mental arithmetic and much of the rea- 
soning in geometry are more easily understood than the 
generalizations of botany and zoology. Then the reason- 
ing in mathematics trains the mind to habits of logical 
activity. In the evolution of the race the principles 
of miathematics and logic were discovered and devel- 
oped first; and the order of race development is 
usually a safe guide to the development of the 
individual. 

10. Psychology or mental science should be studied 
after the physical sciences. It is more abstract and re- 
quires more maturity of thought for its comprehension. 
The mind should be well trained before it is able to inter- 
pret its own operations and processes. The habit of inter- 
pretation carried to the extreme with young persons is 
apt to lead to morbidness of mind. It is sometimes well 
that young persons are not conscious of all the workings 
of the mind, for like digestion it often works best when 
we give it the least thought. This as well as the diffi- 
culty of the subject would place it late in the school 
course. 



11-4 MANAGBMBNT AND METHODS 

PRINCIPLES BASED UPON THE NATURE OE INSTRUCTION. 

1. Instruction in the primary grades should proceed 
from the knozmi to the related unknown. The teacher 
should know the boundaries and limitations of the child's 
knowledge, and then he knows where to begin with new 
knowledge. The known must form the stepping-stones 
to the unknown. We interpret the new knowledge by 
relating it to the old. The law of apperception is a 
helpful one to the teacher, and perhaps no law is more 
often violated. The child should begin the study of al- 
gebra by relating it to the principles of arithmetic with 
which he is already familiar. The more closely he re- 
lates these, the more firmly will he grasp the new subject. 
Most of the higher subjects may be linked to the ele- 
mentary, which not only makes sure the new knowledge, 

but reviews and fastens more firmly the old. 

• 

2. The deductive process may often he used in ad- 
vanced instruction. That is, the instruction may some- 
times proceed from the unknown to the known. The 
child may sometimes fix in memory what he does not un- 
derstand and afterward get a clear idea of it. Each of 
us can recall where things long remembered may sud- 
denly come to us with new force and a clearness which 
make us wonder why we did not see them before. The 
war on the " old education method " was not so much 
because it went from the unknown to the known as that 
it failed to get to the knozvn. An hypothesis is often 
assumed from which we reason to known facts, and thus 
establish or refute the hypothesis. In algebra we must 
often trace the relation from the unknown to the known, 
and the same is true in geometry. The fault is not so 
much in the method itself as in its execution — failing 
to reason to the known. 



BASIC PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING llo 

J. Primary instruction must begin with the concrete. 
The senses are the gateways to the mind. Through 
them and them alone at first do we reach the mind. In 
number the teacher should present the objects first. Pen- 
cils, pegs, tooth-picks, crayons, marks, cards, papers, small 
corn-stalks, etc., will answer the purpose. Use these, and 
see that pupils get through them clear concepts of num- 
ber in the abstract. In compound numbers make sure 
that pupils get correct notions of pints, quarts, pounds, 
pecks, bushels, feet, yards, inches, etc., by using these 
measures until the children have formed correct concepts 
of their size. In geography, along with their definitions 
of capes, bays, isthmuses, volcanoes, etc., use pictures and 
drawings, making sure that pupils understand the terms. 
If primary work is properly done, the child can pass 
gradually to the abstractions necessary in the sciences 
later. 

4. The concrete must not be carried too far. The ob- 
jects are necessary at first, but they are only the scaffold- 
ing, and should be removed when the building is 
complete. The min'd uses the concrete object to aid it in 
grasping the abstract thought. It hobbles for awhile on 
the crutches of sense, but it must learn later to soar 
into the realm of the abstract. The thought may then 
be grasped without illustration or representation of the 
object. To depend upon objects too long in number work 
is to weaken the child's mind for mathematics. The 
child must be trained to hold some of the results in mind. 
It is well to develop the multiplication table by the use 
of objects, but unless the results are retained in the 
mind, the child is weakened in its power to apply the 
multiplication table to the practical things of life. To 
show by objects how the results of the multiplication 



116 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

table are derived is well, but until the child has these 
results so perfectly in mind that they are almost a second 
nature, they are not ready to leave it. Many moral lessons 
given by the use of objects is a degradation of the great 
moral truths, to say nothing of the degradation of the 
science work itself. 

5. In primary instruction zve may use analysis and 
synthesis. The first is better in some subjects, and the 
second in others ; while in other subjects both methods 
should be combined. In reading by the word method, 
which seems the most logical of all the methods of teach- 
ing reading, the word is taught as a whole first, then 
words are combined into sentences, — a synthetic process, 
— and later the words are analyzed into letters — an 
analytic process. Pronunciation also goes by synthesis 
and analysis — first a synthesis of sounds in the words, 
then the analysis of the word into its elements, and last 
a synthesis of the elements into words. Grammar should 
be taught first synthetically and then analytically, and 
later the two methods combined. In geography we begin 
with the school-house and grounds, and proceed to the 
township, county. State, etc. Then we may use the 
reverse process and begin with the world as a whole and 
by analysis come down to the details of the subject. In 
primary arithmetic addition precedes subtraction, mul- 
tiplication precedes division, and in arithmetic solutions 
we use both analysis and synthesis. 

6. Analysis and synthesis are often combined in ad- 
vanced studies. Sometimes analysis is the best method, 
and sometimes synthesis, and often the two are com- 
bined in different degrees in the same subject. In 
the natural sciences the pupils should analyze for the 



BASIC PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING 117 

elements, and then synthesize these elements into science. 
The facts are to be found and grouped into classes, and 
the phenomena combined so as to explain their law and 
their causes. In elementary mathematics, synthesis pre- 
vails ; while in advanced, the analytic, and this seems the 
typical order for all the higher studies. 











METHODS 











XVIII. READING 

Some: one has said that all education consists in learn- 
ing to read. While this is an overstatement, reading is 
an essential to most school work, and to teach a child 
to read is one of the first duties of the teacher. The two 
essentials of reading are — 

1. To read intelligently. 

2. To read intelligibly. 

To these two essentials may be added two other 
points of much merit, — (3) to read forcefully, and (4) 
to read gracefully. These four points give the essence 
of all good reading, and good teaching strives to attain 
these ends. 

The purposes of teaching the child to read are — 

1. To enable him to gain information. 

2. To enable hirn to impart information. 

3. To gain pleasure from reading. 

These purposes should be kept constantly in view by 
the teacher. From the very first pupils can be trained 
to gather the thought from the page. It may be very 
simple thoughts at first, but the pupil must realize that 
the page speaks to him. He then begins to acquire 
knowledge. Then, too, he must impart this knowledge 
to others. He must tell them what the page says to him. 

Last, but not least, is the pleasure that reading will 
afford him in after life. The pleasure of reading books, 
magazines, and newspapers, to glean from the printed 
page the world's events for the day, or week, or month, 

121 



122 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

to see with the mind's eye the happenings of the world 
— this is a pleasure which, never experienced, makes 
the mental horizon little larger than the physical. Not 
only this, but reading unlocks the beauties of nature 
and art, and reveals the aesthetic pleasure which comes 
from reading pure literature. 

Reading not only gives pleasure to the reader, but 
oral reading, if well done, is a source of pleasure to the 
hearer. Oral reading, as it was formerly taught, was 
mechanical. Later it was imitative of the elocutionist. 
Oral reading should be the correct and natural expres- 
sion of thought. When to this is added a pleasing voice, 
the fireside reading circle in the home may be made a 
pleasure indeed. 

Silent reading, however, is of most importance. To 
train the pupil to think and to grasp the thought of the 
printed page is the great task of the teacher. " Syste- 
matic reading," says Russell, " is the valued means for 
cultivating reflective habits of mind, which is study, not 
perusal, — reading which is tentatively done, carefully 
reviewed, exactly recorded, or orally recounted." 

The pupil should soon learn to enjoy reading solely for 
the sake of reading. Choice stories, biographies, inter- 
esting histories, anecdotes, travels, and clean fiction 
should be placed in his hands early, and a taste for 
reading cultivated. This will give an impetus to the pu- 
pil, and if wise selections are made for him he will soon 
form a taste for good reading. It will prove both inter- 
esting and profitable. If silent reading were encouraged 
at home, and pupils were given access to books, much of 
the school-room monotonous drawl would be avoided. 
Pupils should be trained to read as fluently as they talk. 



READING 123 

Not only that, but they should be taught to talk grace- 
fully and freely. 

So many pupils spell out laboriously the printed words 
from the page without getting any meaning from them. 
Whenever the child can feel that the page is speaking to 
him, whenever he has mastered the mechanical forms un- 
til there is contact with the author's thought, then read- 
ing becomes a pleasure. 

There are at present three common methods of teach- 
ing the child to read, with half a dozen other methods 
which vary slightly from the main ones. 

THE AI^PHABET METHOD. 

This is the method our fathers and grandfathers were 
taught. A large majority of men and women of middle 
age were taught by this method. It consists in learn- 
ing first the names of the letters, and then combining 
these letters into words. Perhaps most of us are famil- 
iar with the short words ha, he, hi, ho, etc. The alpha- 
bet method is now almost obsolete, and teachers have 
sometimes gone to the other extreme. The English alpha- 
bet consists of twenty-six letters, and there are upwards 
of forty sounds in the language. This makes it a difficult 
task to teach the child to read by this method. Then it 
is not good philosophy to call attention to the parts be- 
fore the whole. Children taught by the alphabet method 
lose much time before they are able to read fluently. 
Teachers are few who have not been annoyed by the 
pupil taught the a, b, c's at home, and instead of grasp- 
ing the form of the word at a glance, stops short and 
begins to spell the word in a coarse whisper. The mind 
of the pupil is intent on the parts of the word instead of 
the word itself. 



124 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

While the alphabet method is not the best one for 
teaching the child to read, the other extreme is also to 
be avoided. Children should not be left helpless in 
learning new words, and to learn the parts of the word 
early is one of the best preparations for mastering new 
words. After the child has learned to read short, easy 
sentences, the attention should then be directed to the 
letters which compose the word. Spelling and reading 
must, in a degree, go hand in hand from this on. 

The word method is the natural method of learning to 
read. The child learns to speak words. The mother points 
to the object and calls the name. What would be more 
ridiculous than when the cat enters the room for the 
mother to point to it and say to the child c-a-t. Yet 
this is just the method employed when pupils are taught 
the letters separately first. If the child learns the spoken 
word as a unit, it would seem proper that he learn the 
printed word the same way. 

THE WORD METHOD. 

A child entering school knows a large number of 
words, and knows them as well as he will, perhaps, ever 
know them, that is, the meaning of them. Show the 
child an object, then show him a picture of it. Teach 
him to discriminate between the two. Then show him 
the written or printed word, and teach him that this, too, 
represents the object. He should then grow familiar 
with the written or printed form until when he sees 
that form he thinks of the object as readily as if he saw 
the picture of the object. It is not hard to select a 
list of objects which can be represented thus. Verbs, 
adjectives, and some parts of speech are not quite so 
readily taught. Yet the child is familiar with these 



READING 125 

words, and after a very few lessons wall begin to recog- 
nize the written or printed form of these words as read- 
ily as the picture. 

The child should be taught thoroughly a dozen or 
more words. Then these words may be grouped into 
short, easy sentences. All new words in the reading 
lesson should be studied as individual words before the 
child begins the preparation of the new lesson. After 
the child has learned a hundred words or so, the letters 
may be taught. After that time new words are to be 
taught as a unit and afterward divided into their parts, 
and the spelling and syllabification should form part of 
the drill on the new words. 

Children taught by the word method do not drawl 
out their reading as those taught by the alphabet method. 
The teacher must strive always to have the pupil get the 
idea back of the printed characters. Is it not a common 
thing for pupils to read in a high-pitched, nervous voice, 
as if they were standing on tiptoe reaching after some- 
thing just above them? Stop the pupil, and have him tell 
you what the book is saying to him. Then the chances 
are that he will speak it naturally. Then have him read 
in that tone of voice as far as possible. By a judicious 
use of the word and alphabet method, with constant at- 
tention to the thought behind the printed form, our best 
teachers secure excellent results. 

the: sentence method. 
For the last decade or more some most excellent 
primary teachers have been using the sentence method. 
This is dealing with the sentence as the unit instead of 
the word. It cannot be questioned that most excellent 
results have been attained by this method. A skilful 



126 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

teacher will get good results. Pupils taught by it sel- 
dom drawl their reading. Its advocates urge that even 
with the isolated word used by the child, as he is learning 
to speak, is in reality a sentence, the other words in the 
sentence being understood. The sentence method, its 
advocates claim, is the natural method of learning to 
read. 

Besides the three methods mentioned there might 
be named the word-building method, the object method, 
the phonetic method, the phonic method, and others. 
These, however, are but various combinations of other 
methods, rather than distinct ones. 

Let it never be forgotten that the earnest, conscien- 
tious teacher who is intent on teaching the child to read, 
and whose wits and ingenuity are all brought to this im- 
portant task, will succeed by any method. Like most other 
things, there are good and bad methods, but results are 
more important than methods. The teacher should un- 
derstand the underlying principles of a number of meth- 
ods. Then by careful study and faithful preparation of 
the work, many variations will be suggested which, per- 
haps, will fit some particular pupil or condition. 

One great difficulty in pupils learning to read is the 
lack of the same words used in different sentences. If 
pupils could have two or three readers with the same 
words used in each, but the story different, much time 
would be gained in learning to read. Teachers can do 
much to help pupils over this difficulty. If the teacher 
would take the time and trouble to prepare a reading 
chart, using no word except those which the pupil had 
used in previous lessons, and combining them into short 
and simple stories, it would be a great help to his 
classes. These sentences could be written on the black- 



READING 127 

board, or neatly written and copied on the hectograph, 
where the pupils did not have supplementary readers. 
Then too, the teacher arranging his own lessons can 
arrange them to suit a particular class or occasion. A 
httle simple story in which the names of one or two 
pupils of the class may be used, will arouse an intense 
interest, and after a few weeks' use of such supplemen- 
tary work great improvement in the reading of the class 
may be observed. Let me say that the teacher who does 
not have a hectograph or some other good duplicating 
device, is much handicapped. 

Pupils should be brought to a stage of self-helpful- 
ness as soon as possible, that is, they should be taught 
to meet and master new words without help from the 
teacher. Perhaps the best incentive to this is a book of 
interesting stories, with good print and simple language, 
something which appeals to the child. Of course, the 
same story will not appeal to all children, but the child is 
rare to whom no sort of story will appeal. When the 
child wants the story bad enough to make an effort to 
master it for himiself, the way is paved to good reading. 
If the teacher in the school-room or the parents in the 
home would read interesting stories to the class, leaving 
the story at an interesting point, and then encouraging 
the children to complete it alone, it would be a great 
help in school work. 

The child should, from the very first, hear good 
reading. The high-pitched, gutteral tones heard in many 
school-rooms may soon be done away with, and even, 
gentle, musical tones be substituted for them by a change 
in teachers. It is a good share of a liberal education for 
the child to hear daily a well-modulated voice. Like 
music, it softens, refines, and elevates. If teachers could 



128 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

hear their own voices from a phonograph, it would work 
wonders in the school-room. Children who have the 
privilege of hearing good reading daily are fortunate 
indeed. 

To make haste slowly in teaching the children to read 
is good advice. Children should master the words of 
each lesson in the primary grades before going to the 
next. If the children grow tired of the lesson before 
the words in it are mastered, re-write the story, using the 
same words, but putting it in different form. Here is 
where a good duplicating device is so helpful. There is 
a limit, however, at which further reading of the lesson 
is almost useless. In the grades a lesson is often 
so completely thrashed over that pupils are dis- 
gusted with it. Perhaps there is not a teacher but can 
recall in his own student days lessons which were read 
and re-read until they grew sick and tired of them. It 
is at such stages as this that an interesting story, biogra- 
phy, and the supplementary reader is so much valued. 
It adds renewed energy on the part of the pupils. In 
reading, as in everything else, the time is utterly wasted 
unless there is effort and mental activity on the part of 
the pupil. 

Teachers should, as soon as pupils get over their 
timidity on entering school, insist upon an easy, grace- 
ful posture while reading. Slovenly habits formed here 
cling through life. This need not be made a hobby, as 
is was formerly in the schools, but it should not be neg- 
lected. Insist also early in school life on distinct articu- 
lation. The teacher can leave his impress, to a very great 
extent, on the community by insisting upon perfect 
articulation, and drilling the pupils in that line. We 
would not, of course, think of the teacher being pedantic 



READING 129 

in this particular. In a certain sense there may be a 
local color in pronunciation. It would be as much out of 
place for the teacher to insist upon his pupils observ- 
ing certain sounds of " a " which prevail in the East were 
he teaching in the West, as it would be for the Westerner 
to insist on the flat sounds of the same letter were he 
teaching in the East. In teaching, as in other things, the 
teacher must use good common sense and avoid being a 
pedant. 

There are numerous other little points which the 
teacher must teach his pupils to guard against. They 
must be taught to read neither too fast nor too slow, too 
loud nor too low. Break up the sing-song, monotonous 
reading so. often heard. This can be done by stopping 
a pupil and having him express the thought as he would 
were he talking. Drawling must also be prevented. 
Children are imitative, and bad habits may be charac- 
teristics of the individual school. It is the teacher's 
business to prevent, as far as possible, such habits. Then, 
too, the sing-song tones heard in reading poetry should 
not be tolerated. ' This comes from not connecting the 
sense with the thought of the poem. There is, it is 
true, a rhythm in poetry, but when the reader really gets 
the thought, the sing-song will not be heard. 

ADVANCED READING. 

Reading is too much neglected in the advanced 
grades. Many teachers work faithfully and earnestly 
with the first, second, and third grade reading, but neg- 
lect it in the grades above this. This is a great mistake. 
In the higher grades many failures come from not 
being able to interpret the printed page. In fact, many of 
the mistakes in arithmetic are in reality but lack of 
power to master the English. Time after time do we see 

9 



130 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

pupils whose failure on a problem is a failure to inter- 
pret the language. Through all the grades of the com- 
mon schools there should be some attention given to 
reading as reading. It may not be daily, but it should 
be a regular and systematic drill in reading. 

Children in the upper grades should read literature; 
whole selections of literature, not scraps. It is unpardon- 
able that in many schools pupils in the advanced grades 
leave school without ever having read such beautiful and 
inspiring selections as " Evangeline," " The Courtship of 
Miles Standish," " Snow Bound," " Enoch Arden," 
" King of the Golden River," and scores of others equally 
interesting. 

The successful teacher of reading in the advanced 
grades must believe in his subject. He must believe that 
to lead the pupil to the proper appreciation of the se- 
lection of pure literature is to place the pupil on a higher 
spiritual plane. Such an appreciation will lift him above 
much that is low and groveling and vicious, and give 
him a constant companion and monitor which, like David 
Copperfield's Agnes, is always pointing upward. 

To teach successfully, reading or literature, in the 
advanced grades requires that the teacher must be famil- 
iar with the selection to be taught. He must understand 
it in all its bearings. He must have studied it earnestly 
and carefully, and then he must have planned how he 
can best present it to the class so that they will get the 
most out of it. Less than this is to make reading in the 
advanced grades a mere farce. 

No subject in the whole school curriculum is more 
inspiring than literature. It appeals to the universal in 
mankind. The lessons it brings are the ideals of the 
soul's possibilities. It quickens in the individual soul the 



READING 131 

inspirations which are universal. The beautiful friend- 
ship of Damon and Pythias is above our selfishness, lift- 
ing us above ourselves, creating in us higher aspirations 
and showing us our own possibilities. The soul is con- 
stantly struggling to free itself from bondage, and every 
time a limitation is removed it leaps with joy. The 
reader, if he really reads, is forced to live, for the time, 
the ideal life pictured in the literature, and thus from day 
to day his soul attains to higher things. Children whose 
hearts and minds are not open to such influences lose 
some of the most potent influences to a higher life. 
Let me plead with you to introduce the children to whole 
selections of pure literature in the advanced grades in 
reading. It may prove the rising-bell in the soul of 
hundreds of pupils. The inspiration, the uplift, and the 
noble sentiments planted in the hearts of pupils at this 
stage will yield golden fruits of better things in after 
life. 

In teaching reading in the advanced grades, broad and 
accurate scholarship in the teacher will count for much. 
His reading and study should have made him familiar 
with the geographical, historical, and mythological char- 
acters. The beauty and sublimity of much of our liter- 
ature hangs upon the suggestive forces of such references. 
The teacher, to whom such references appeal not can never 
be an ideal teacher of reading in advanced classes. 

Teachers frequently find it hard in the intermediate 
and higher grades to interest pupils in their reading les- 
son. It is so often true that pupils work faithfully on 
arithmetic, history, geography, or grammar, but do not 
think it necessary to look over their reading lesson until 
time to recite. They do not study their reading lesson. 
The following little devices may be suggestive to many 



132 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

teachers, and serve to break the monotony, and add spice 
to the reading class. Teachers should never lose sight of 
the great purpose of teaching reading, that is, to train 
the pupil to grasp the author's thought from the printed 
page. Keep the minds of your class alert at all hazards. 

1. A word-pronouncing contest is a good stimulant 
to class interest before the recitation. Pupils must be 
able to call every word at sight. Drill them on the list 
of new words and old ones, which are liable to give 
trouble, from the book or on the board. They should be 
able to recognize any word quickly at sight. Write 
the word on the board, and have the pupils call it as 
soon as they recognize it. After the words are written 
on the board, number the pupils in your class, and point- 
ing to the word, call the number of the pupil. The pupil 
is to pronounce the word quickly and accurately. This 
drill will be both pleasant and profitable. 

2. In primary classes pupils will take great pleasure 
in chalk talks. That is, the teacher will make the chalk 
give the command to some member of the class. As 
soon as the pupil can read the command, he performs 
the act. Pupils will soon learn to make the chalk do the 
talking, and will take great pleasure in writing sentences, 
which the others must interpret and perform the act 
without being told. 

3. Question pupils on their reading. This is a splen- 
did exercise to secure proper emphasis. Place such a 
sentence as, '' That little girl writes very fast," on the 
board. Then question the class and see how properly 
they emphasize the words to bring out the meaning. 
Who writes very fast? Which little girl writes very 
fast? How does the little girl write? How fast does 
the little girl write? Such questions will not only lead 



READING 133 

to proper emphasis, but to the proper interpretation of 
the sentence. 

4- Have the pupils read the paragraph silently, then 
call upon one or more to give the thought of the para- 
graph in his own language. 

5. Make sure that the pupils have really studied the 
lesson before beginning the recitation. The teacher must 
know the lesson so thoroughly that he knows the story 
in all of its details, and then with books closed he ques- 
tions carefully and completely until he knows just the 
pupils who have made a thorough preparation of the 
lesson. If pupils know that such a quiz is coming, 
they will not often neglect to thoroughly prepare the 
lesson. 

6. While it is not a good thing to criticize too se- 
verely nor to permit the pupils to criticize one another 
until after the pupil has finished the paragraph, it is 
often an interesting exercise to call on a pupil to read 
until he makes a mistake. When he makes a mistake, 
he may be seated while another is called upon. 

7. A good drill in securing attention to the reading 
is to have each pupil in the class numbered. One pu- 
pil is then called upon to read, and at irregular intervals 
the teacher calls out the number of some pupil. This 
pupil must then take up the reading at the proper word, 
and continue until another number is called. This re- 
quires, of course, that each pupil give careful attention 
to the reading in order to know where to begin should 
his number be called. 

8. When pupils tire of the regular reader, have sup- 
plementary work, either in other readers or stories and 



134 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

current events journals. This is not only a rest from 
the routine reading work, but cultivates outside reading. 

9. Select an interesting story from some paper. Cut 
it into a number of parts, and distribute these parts 
among the pupils, then let the first read, and the pupil 
holding the next part must rise and read as soon as the 
first is completed. This is a good test of whether pupils 
are really following the thought of the story. 

10. Drill pupils on correct pronunciation. While it 
is a mistake to be too critical, especially with timid 
pupils, there is nothing so beneficial as a teacher with 
careful and accurate pronunciation. Drill pupils on 
words mispronounced. The pronunciation of the word 
literature tells very much as to the training in pronun- 
ciation. Strive to overcome local peculiarities of pro- 
nunciation. If the teacher is popular with the pupils, 
they will soon accept his pronunciation, and do much 
to correct faults among themselves by criticising one an- 
other. 



XIX. WRITING 

Writing is not so much a study as an art. The 
pupil should learn to write from the very first, and 
daily practice in writing should continue through at least 
the first six grades. To write a neat, rapid, legible hand 
is a great accomplishment, one which is worth much to 
pupils in after life. Nowhere can the teacher see him- 
self reflected more quickly or more perfectly than in 
writing. If he is neat and writes a good hand, the writ- 
ing will improve. If he is a poor penman and careless, 
the pupils will grow indifferent. The popular teacher 
can see his own handwriting reflected in the writing of 
the pupils, even to the crossing of the t's. 

Teachers should be careful to get neat, legible forms 
of the letters fastened in the pupils' minds from the very 
first. With larger pupils who have acquired improper 
forms, nothing is a' better corrective than an analysis of 
the letters into their elements. This with much drill on 
the simple elements will help. Do not follow fads in 
teaching writing, but teach a plain, simple hand. The 
vertical, the half slant, and other systems have their ad- 
vocates and their day, and like other fads are soon for- 
gotten. In this as in many other things the system is 
of less importance than results. 

The two tests of writing are legibility and rapidity. 
In this age of push and hurry there is little place for 
the old-time writing master with his painstaking, accu- 
rate copy. For four years in early life my teacher urged 
us to write slowly and carefully, and it has been a detri- 

185 



136 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

ment to me ever since. Finger movements became habit- 
ual, which have never been overcome. The slow, labored 
movement is always at a discount. The teacher who does 
not drill on easy, rapid muscular movement in the class 
until it becomes habitual with the pupils, is a poor teacher 
of writing. Good, easy, rapid movement, with legibility, 
will constitute good writing, whether the writing con- 
forms exactly to any system or not. 

The teacher should insist upon neatness in all written 
work done in school, and should set the example. This 
with daily practice will secure good results. As soon as 
pupils are large enough to use ink without spilling, they 
should be taught to write with a pen. Daily practice 
with pen and ink should follow for several years, until 
pupils write a neat, rapid, legible hand. 

Use practice paper, and drill on movement until pupils 
gain perfect control over the muscles. It is to be re- 
gretted that so many States make the use of the copy 
book obligatory. When the teacher is an unusually poor 
writer, the use of the copy book may be an advantage, in 
that it gives a good form for the pupils to follow. But if 
the copy book must be used, it should be supplemented 
daily by practice on free muscular movements, and good 
writing paper is much the best for this. Use good paper, 
a good medium pen, and black ink of a good qualitv. 

The teacher will find it best usually to take charge of 
the paper, pens, and ink at the close of the practice period. 
The ink may be labeled with the name of the owner. 
Three monitors from each row of seats may be appointed, 
— one to collect and distribute pens, another ink, another 
paper and copy books. These may be kept safely on a 
shelf or in a book-case. The privilege of acting as mon- 
itor may be made a reward of merit, as most pupils will 



WRITING 137 

take pride in performing these duties. It will take but a 
minute or two to collect and distribute writing material, 
and there are less accidents with ink and cleaner copy 
books. As the advanced pupils may need pen and ink 
at any time, the paper or copy books only may be collected, 
and the pupils in these grades permitted to retain their 
ink and pens. 

Teach pupils to sit erect and to hold a pen properly 
from the first. It is easier to prevent pupils from forming 
bad habits than to correct these habits after they are 
formed. Almost any good copy book will discuss the 
position at the desk and the proper way to hold a pen, 
and this is the most valuable part of a copy book. The 
advice of the copy book is good, but to their use is at- 
tributed very justly much of the slow, laborious, cramped 
writing. 

Select a number of good muscular drills, and have 
pupils practice them until they have a free, easy muscular 
movement together with correct form of letters. When 
this is done, — and by good example and persistence it 
can be done, — the problem of writing is solved, if the 
teacher will then insist that all written work be neatly and 
properly done. 



XX. SPELLING 

The: subject of spelling has been greatly overesti- 
mated by some teachers and greatly underestimated by 
others. Teachers in the past, many of them, made it a 
hobby in the school, and later many teachers treated it 
with neglect, not to say contempt. There is no great 
credit in being a good speller, but there is great discredit 
in being a poor one. A few years ago, to my personal 
knowledge, a strong man was an applicant for a school 
position. In almost everything he was well qualified for 
the place, and would have been elected to it but for a 
letter containing some misspelled words. He could not 
spell. His mind seemed unable to take in details, and 
very simple words were often misspelled. 

We may call it a mistake of the hand rather than of 
the head, but the consequences are the same. In the 
language of Dr. Currie, '' Spelling is an art the posses- 
sion of which procures no credit, but the want of entails 
disgrace." Professor March says, " Stress is laid on 
spelling as the sign of a thoroughly educated person out 
of all proportion to its real value." Correct spelling is, 
however, and rightly should be, regarded as one essential 
of an educated and scholarly mind. 

In the old-time school, spelling was a fad. It was 
at a time when the subjects in the school were few. 
Later, as new and richer subjects began to be introduced, 
spelling began to lose its place. Ciphering matches, his- 
tory and geography games, and such recreations began to 
unseat spelling, which had held a monopoly of the matter 

]3S 



SPELLING 139 

of school entertainment and had received the plaudits 
of thinking people and people without thinking. Thus 
spelling was eclipsed in interest, and for a time was 
greatly neglected. 

It was found, too, that many who could stand and 
spell well orally were poor spellers when it came to 
writing. Educators then began a crusade against so much 
time being wasted on spelling. It dawned upon the rank 
and file of teachers that writing was the only test of spell- 
ing. Perhaps you may know me for years and never 
know whether I am a good speller or not, for the chances 
are many to one that I shall never give you an oppor- 
tunity to stand me up in line with a number of other 
persons and spell^down. But if you should receive a 
letter from me, even though it be a short one, you ma}^ 
with a fair degree of accuracy judge of my ability to spell. 
Writing is the only real test of one's ability to spell cor- 
rectly. Then came a reaction against oral spelling. The 
pendulum swung to the other extreme, and for some 
years teachers practically discarded oral spelling. 

It was not surprising that this reaction should come. 
Less than a quarter of a century ago the old blue-back 
speller reigned supreme in many schools. When a boy, 
I spelled through McGufifey's spelling book — I have no 
idea how often we turned back — before I began to read. 
I used the spelling book until I was ready for the fourth 
reader. How vividly some of the scenes come up before 
me! A long line of boys and girls ''toeing a mark" 
down one side of the school-room and partly across the 
end, spelling for head-marks and knowing the penalties 
of failure. To miss three words meant to stand on the 
floor ten minutes ; to miss more than five words, to stand 
on the floor half an hour ; and if we could not spell all 



140 MANAGBMHNT AND METHODS 

the words by that time, we continued to stand until we 
had learned them. 

As I recall the method of teaching spelling in that 
school, I note two great mistakes: — 

I. There was no effort to bring the words into the 
child's experience or to teach the meaning of the words 
" balcony," " barony," " baronet," etc. — the first could 
have been explained to me, the second and third were 
beyond my experience. I doubt if my teacher's concep- 
tion of them was much clearer than my own. I stumbled 
and staggered over the word " vial," never thinking for 
a moment that it was a little bottle. The word '' patent " 
I spelled over and over again without any thought of 
what it meant. Had the teacher given '' a " the short 
sound instead of the long sound and told me the words 
were the same, I should have had at least a vague idea 
of its meaning, as I had heard the word patent used often, 
and even knew that when a man had a patent on an 
article no one else had the right to make it. 

2. The pupils were not taught how to study. Instead 
of looking at a word long enough to get a clear and 
lasting impression and thinking it over until we had mas- 
tered it, we were seeing how often we could study over 
the lesson. We began at the first word and spelled 
rapidly through the lesson, giving no thought except to 
study it over. That dreaded disgrace of standing on the 
floor — we wanted to justify ourselves by the number of 
times we studied our lesson. My old speller shows by 
the marks in the margin that I had studied the lesson 
thirty-three times. I should have had it committed to 
memory in half that time had I really studied it. In fact, 
had I really studied the lesson properly, I should never 
have thought of keeping a list of the number of times I 



SPELLING 141 

spelled it over. In spelling-, as in other subjects, the 
teacher comes far short of his duty to the child if he does 
not often instruct him how to study with best results 
and least loss of time, and see to it that he forms habits 
of such study. One of the greatest wastes of time comes 
from not knowing how to study, and from this ignorance 
come wrong habits of study detrimental to the child all 
through life. 

Why is spelling hard? It is due primarily to the 
irregularities of English orthography. There are over 
forty sounds in the language, and only twenty-six letters. 
Then there are so many irregularities on account of 
silent letters and the different letters and combinations 
of letters to represent the same sound. These irregulari- 
ties are accounted for by the history of the language itself. 
The Anglo-Saxon was first reduced to writing by the 
Roman missionaries. They used the Roman letters with 
few modifications, and fitted the sounds of these letters 
to the sound of the words. Then came the Norman Con- 
quest. The Normans and the Saxons could not pro- 
nounce each other's words correctly. The more scholarly 
tried to hold to the book-forms, but the Normans dropped 
the special Anglo-Saxon discriminations, and left many 
of their own letters in the words which were not sounded 
by the people at large. Changes in the vowel sounds 
then followed. Inaccuracies and carelessness in authors 
and copyists also contributed to these irregularities. 
Wide license prevailed before the time of printing. 
Proper names were found recorded in a variety of ways, 
and the same name was often spelled in a number of ways 
in the same document. Disraeli states that Leicester has 
subscribed his own name in eight different ways, and 



142 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

the name Villers is spelled fourteen different ways in the 
deeds of that family. 

These irregularities have raised the hue and cry for 
reformed spelling, and let us hope that the near future 
will see many common-sense changes in the spelling of a 
large number of our words ; but until such changes come, 
the teacher's duty is to take the language as it is and 
make the best of it. 

METHODS 01^ TEACHINC. 

The Oral Method. — By this method we mean the 
old-fashioned oral spelling. It teaches spelling by naming 
the letters of the words, and this is based upon the prin- 
ciple of fixing the letters of the word in memory by call- 
ing them in regular succession. It appeals to the sense 
of hearing and the observation of the printed form. 
Most of us learned to spell by this method, and it has 
some decided advantages. 

1. It teaches pupils to pronounce words. The old 
plan of spelling i-n in, c-o-m, com, incom ; p-r-e pre, 
incompre ; h-e-n hen, incomprehen ; s-i si, incomprehensi ; 
b-i-1 bil, incomprehensibil ; i, incomprehensibili ; t-y ty, 
incomprehensibility may sound antiquated, and perhaps 
it is, but nothing is better to make the pupil independent 
in pronunciation than well-directed oral spelling. 

2. It teaches syllabification, and this is sadly neglected 
in the ordinary method of teaching written spelling. Cor- 
rect syllabification is a good start toward correct pronun- 
ciation, and if incorrect spelling leads to disgrace, 
incorrect pronunciation points the way and gives you 
companions to lead you on. 

3. It admits of many interesting methods of competi- 
tive recitation. While, as stated before, the old-time 



SPELLING 143 

spelling match has lost much of its interest, it is thrill- 
ing yet when compared with a written spelling match. 
There are also some disadvantages : — 

1. Pupils taught by the oral method are not neces- 
sarily accurate spellers in writing. Errors in writing 
may come from two sources : First, it may be a mistake 
of the head. Such mistakes will use wrong letters in 
the words. The writer misspells because he does not 
know how to spell correctly. The second is more a mis- 
take of the hand than of the head. Such mistakes are 
usually letters omitted. The hand cannot keep up with 
the thought. Practice, practice of the head and the hand 
combined, is the only remedy for this. This disadvantage 
is all the greater when we consider that the practical 
need of spelling is in writing. 

2. Another disadvantage is that each pupil of a class 
cannot spell as many words by the oral method as by 
the written. Pupils sometimes count which words will 
come to them, and omit the study of the others. This 
objection can be largely obviated by promiscuous pro- 
nunciation in the recitation. Then if each member of the 
class gives proper attention, he hears and thinks the spell- 
ing of each word, and this gives practically all the benefit 
of the written spelling. 

THE WRITTEN METHOD. 

This method teaches spelling by writing the letters 
of a word. Its principle is that of fixing the spelling of 
a word in memory through the sense of sight and the 
muscular sense of forming the letters. " Things seen are 
mightier than things heard,'' is one of the maxims of the 
advocates of written spelling, and to this they might add 
another, " Things done are more impressive than things 



144 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

seen only." The superiority of the method is not so much 
in the sight alone as in the actual construction of the 
word which enforces the impression on the mind. The 
child can see the printed form just as well in the spelling 
book, but this re-enforcement of writing the words is 
not there. There are some decided advantages of this 
method over the oral method : — 

1. The word is brought more vividly before the mind 
in writing and the double impression is more lasting. 

2. The main purpose of spelling is its use in writing, 
and the practice in writing trains the hand and the head 
to united accuracy in the spelling of the words. 

3. Each pupil will be tested on all the words of the 
lesson. 

4. It is a better test of the comparative ability of the 
members of the class in spelling, as all the pupils spell 
the same words. 

5. It gives the pupil the opportunity to review all of 
the misspelled words and to fix the corrected form in 
the mind. This point should never be neglected by the 
teacher. 

6. It keeps all of the pupils busy. It requires a teacher 
with strong personality and strong disciplinary power to 
hold the attention of each pupil in a large class in an oral 
spelling lesson. 

7. To be a good speller, one's hand must be so 
trained to produce words that as soon as the word is 
thought, its written form will be produced without minute 
directions being given to the hand. This is sometimes 
called the hand-motor sense, and can be acquired only 
by much drill in written spelling. 



SPELLING 145 

-During the first two years, the pupil will learn most of 
the new words during the recitation period. But the 
teacher must spare no pains to make the pupil self-helpful. 
The greatest danger of the word method in the teaching 
of reading is that pupils do not learn to pronounce strange 
words without help from some one else. The class should 
soon learn to pronounce and to spell the new words at 
the head of the lesson. There is some advantage in hav- 
ing all of the spelling done in full sentences at first. It 
keeps before the mind of the pupil all that has been 
learned in the reading. It prepares him at once to write 
what he speaks and makes learning to spell a rapid and 
intelligent process. 

When the child has learned to spell a hundred or 
a hundred and fifty words, and to use them in his read- 
ing he may begin to spell isolated lists of words. These 
should for some time be arranged in lists similar in 
form and sound. It will enable the teacher to teach the 
sounds more readily, and to point out the differences 
of similar words, and the learning of the similar parts 
will serve to give the pupil a mastery of other sim- 
ilar words. For example, " cat," " bat," " hat," '' mat," 
" fat," '' sat," etc. When the child has gained power 
enough to learn new words without association with sim- 
ilar words, he may begin the use of the spelling book. 

Throughout the school course the child should give 
particular attention to the words of its own vocabulary, 
to the words needed in expressing its own thoughts. 
S4)elling, however, serves another purpose sometimes 
overlooked. It may increase a child's vocabulary. The 
use of a spelling book should never be condemned on 
account of the abuse of it. The teacher in using the 
spelling book should question pupils for the meaning of 
to 



146 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

words. It is not necessary to give a dry dictionary defi- 
nition. A proper use of the word in a sentence is much 
to be preferred. There is much time wasted in the lower 
grades by having pupils laboriously look up the mean- 
ings of words without getting any understanding of them. 
It is in every sense mechanical. The habit of consulting 
a dictionary is a good one, but it is not very profitable 
before the fifth or sixth grade. It is better to defer 
this until the child is mentally able to be benefited than to 
disgust it with so much unprofitable work. Talks about 
the meaning of the words in the lesson and having pupils 
give sentences containing the words and to recall where 
they have seen them in their reading, is an excellent thing 
to increase the pupil's vocabulary as well as to fasten 
the word in its correct form on the child's mind. 

When the pupil has advanced far enough to prepare 
the lesson by himself, the teacher's task is principally in 
testing the preparation, in stimulating to study, and more 
important still, directing in the proper methods of study. 
There is so much time wasted in the study of spelling 
because pupils do not know how to study. The follow- 
ing suggestions for the study of the lesson may be found 
useful, whatever the method or device is used in the 
recitation : — 

1. Have pupils carefully and thoughtfully study the 
lesson a few times, and then write the words. This 
is better than simply looking at the words, even if it 
be a pupil whom we may call eye-minded, because by 
using the muscles in making the consecutive letters it 
enforces the form on the memory. 

2. The spelling of a word aloud is a good practice. 
To avoid the confusion which would result in this kind 



SPELLING 147 



of study in the school-room, have pupils study their spell- 
ing aloud at home, slowly and thoughtfully, a few times. 

3. Have pupils form the habit of looking over the 
spelling lesson carefully and striking out the words they 
are sure they know how to spell. This will be a won- 
derful time saver, and will direct the pupil's energy where 
it is needed. So often pupils use as much energy on 
the words they are sure they can spell as upon the others, 
and the watchful teacher will help them to a better use of 
their time and energy. 

4. Teach pupils to give their undivided attention to 
the work at hand. Perhaps there is no study in the 
school course where divided attention will accomplish less. 
It does not require the long-continued attention of algebra 
or geometry, but if in these subjects which appeal to 
the reason the attention is thrown off for a moment, the 
chain of reasoning may be taken up again ; but in spell- 
ing the word is the unit, and if once the attention wavers, 
the whole effort is lost and must be repeated. In spell- 
ing, the repetition 'is apt to become mechanical and the 
pupil believes himself actually studying when he is not. 
Mind-wandering is to be deprecated at any time, but 
nowhere more than when an image of a word is to be 
stamped in the mind with integrity. 

5. Arrange for pupils to study their spelling when 
their minds are not fatigued. An arbitrary memory 
study above all others requires all the vigor of the mind. 
The memory of these arbitrary facts, like the letters 
of a w^ord, is the first power of the mind to feel the 
weariness of overwork, and far better rest the mind than 
try to apply it to such subjects and to acquire the slug- 
gish habit of snoozing over them. 



148 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

6. Keep a list of words misspelled, and review them 
frequently until pupils are thoroughly familiar with 
them. 

RECREATIONS AND DEVICES. 

1. In written spelling it is often a good plan to di- 
vide- the class into two sections by numbering them 
" one," '* two," '' one," " two," '' one," '' two," etc., to 
the end of the class. Then pronounce the words alter- 
nately to the sections. While all in section " one " are 
writing their first word, the teacher may be pronouncing 
to section '' two." It removes the temptation to copy 
a word from a pupil near by and will create rivalry be- 
tween the sections. 

2. A good device in oral spelling to train attention 
and to test the pupil's knowledge of when a word is 
spelled correctly is for the teacher to give no attention 
to a word misspelled but pronounce the next word to 
the next pupil. If this pupil has not observed the 
mistake of the one just above, he spells the word pro- 
nounced, and any subsequent pupil, however far down in 
the class, if he noted the mistake, may spell the word 
when his time to spell comes, and then pass above all 
who failed to observe the mistake. 

3. A similar device is for the teacher often to pass 
a word correctly spelled to the next pupil just as if it 
had been misspelled. If the pupil has self-confidence 
enough to spell it the same way, all is right; but if 
he does not knoiv how to spell it, the chances are he 
will spell it differently, and this is regarded as a word 
missed. This is an excellent device to cultivate self- 
confidence. 



SPELLING 149 

4. Have pupils stand and spell words beginning with 
the same letter, no word to be spelled more than once. 
If one fails to spell a word or spells a word which has 
been previously spelled, he must be seated. See who 
can stand longest. 

5. Have pupils stand as above, and let the teacher 
pronounce a word to the first pupil. The second must 
take the last letter of the first word and make it the 
first letter of the second word, and so on, no word to 
be repeated. For example, the teacher gives the first 
pupil the word " house." The second pupil must spell 
a word beginning with " e," as the word " ever." Now 
the third pupil must spell a word beginning with " r," 
as " run." The fourth must spell a word beginning 
wath " n," etc. Any pupil failing to spell a word or 
repeating a word spelled before must be seated. 

6. A very successful device which is often used 
when pupils do not use a spelling book, is to select ten 
words each day, common words, but words often mis- 
spelled, and have them written correctly on the black- 
board. The pupils study them as carefully as they would 
a lesson in a spelling book. When the time for the 
recitation in spelling comes, the words are erased from 
the board and then pronounced to the class, who write 
them. When all are written, the teacher calls mis- 
cellaneously for pupils to stand and spell the word as 
they have spelled it on their paper. Then some one 
is sent to the board to place the correct form on the 
board again. The teacher keeps a record of how many 
in the class missed each of the various words. From 
this list he knows what words to review. Words in 
review may be pronounced at any subsequent lesson 



150 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

without placing on the board. If the words are care- 
fully chosen by the teacher, some excellent results may 
be obtained. 

7. The old method of choosing sides and then spell- 
ing down, having two pupils spelling at a time, often 
grows tiresome, especially if there are a few good spell- 
ers who monopolize the time. This may be obviated by 
having the two pupils who choose up to stand in op- 
posite corners of the room. As each pupil is chosen, 
he takes his place in the order of choosing at the right 
of his captain. When the school is divided, all on one 
side are called No. i and all on the other side No. 2. 
Each pupil keeps his number, regardless of change, until 
the end of the spelling. Two trusty pupils, one from 
each side, are chosen to keep tally. The first word is 
given to the captain of side No. i, and when the word 
is spelled the captain walks across the floor to the foot 
of No. 2, and as he crosses the floor, he calls his 
number distinctly. The two persons keeping tally reg- 
ister this by giving side No. i one mark or tally. The 
teacher pronounces in regular order down side No. i. 
If any words are misspelled pupils pass above just as 
they would in a spelling class. When all on side No. i 
have spelled, the teacher passes to the captain of No. 
2. When he spells, he crosses over to the foot of side 
No. I, calling distinctly his number, and the secretaries 
credit side No. 2 with a tally, and the spelling continues 
down side No. 2. In the same way the one who now 
stands head in side No. i, after spelling his word, calls 
his number and takes his place at the foot of No. 2. 
The process is continued at pleasure. In a little while 
by pupils missing words the sides will become mixed, 
but each pupil keeps his original number, and when he 



SPELLING 151 

crosses to the other side of the room, calls out this 
number, and his side is given a credit. It will be seen 
that the best spellers will cross from one side of the 
room to the other oftener than the poor spellers, thus 
giving their side more credits. The side which has most 
credits is considered victorious. It has two advantages 
over the old plan : — 

(i) It keeps all the pupils busy, and gives the small- 
est pupils and the poorer spellers the same drill in spell- 
ing as the largest pupils and the best spellers. 

(2) Two or more persons may pronounce at the 
same time, keeping a little distance apart, and thus get 
more drill in the same length of time. 

8. An interesting game for a small class of small 
pupils is '' Pussy Wants a Corner." One pupil is pussy, 
who stands off to one side. Words are pronounced to 
the class. When a word is missed, "pussy" has a 
chance to spell it. If the word is correctly spelled, 
" pussy " takes her place in the class, and the pupil who 
missed becomes "pussy," and so on. 

9. A useful plan in written spelling is to have the 
words written in one column. Opposite each word in 
the next column may be the part of speech, in another a 
synonym, and in a fourth column a sentence containing 
the word. 

10. To cultivate attention, give each pupil a number, 
then pronounce a word and call the number of the pupil 
who is to spell it. This miscellaneous calling to spell 
will keep each one on the alert to understand the word 
and to be ready to spell should you call the number. 
Numbers are more readily called than names, and re- 
quire closer attention on the part of the pupil. 



XXI. ARITHMETIC 

Arithmetic has long held sway in the popular mind 
as being the subject of greatest importance in the com- 
mon-school course. It is looked upon as being of great 
practical value in life, and essential to a business career. 
It is not an uncommon statement to hear a father say 
he wants his boy to learn arithmetic whether he knows 
anything else or not. The one great essential in the 
early schoolmaster was that he be able to do the sums. 
It mattered little whether he knew anything else or not. 
To him all manner of arithmetic puzzles were referred, 
and if he could not " do " them, he was regarded as " no 
good." 

The preference which arithmetic won in this early 
day may be waning, but it is far from being lost. New 
subjects have knocked loud and fast at the door of our 
early school curriculum, and a number have been ad- 
mitted, but arithmetic still holds and will continue to 
hold a good share of attention. There is no doubt, how- 
ever, that the mere practical or commercial value of 
arithmetic has been overestimated and is at present over- 
estimated. The man in business uses comparatively little 
arithmetic compared with what the uninitiated think he 
uses. He rarely has a problem in complex fractions. 
His banker counts the interest on his note, not by the 
old-fashioned aliquot parts or the hundred per cent, 
method, but by the help of a book where all the calcu- 
lations are made and he has but to add the results. The 
long columns of figures to be added are now added by 

152 



ARITHMETIC 153 

a machine made for the purpose, and the results are 
absohitely correct. Thus much of the early arithmetic 
which we learned, thinking we would use it constantly 
when we were men, is now largely obsolete. Few of us 
ever use partial payments, compound interest, allegation, 
cube root, and a number of other subjects treated in al- 
most every complete arithmetic, and a majority of our 
business men, and many of our most successful business 
men, would find it hard to solve a large number of such 
problems. It is evident to any one who thinks that the 
commercial value of arithmetic is greatly overestimated 
in the popular mind. 

THE CULTURE VALUE. 
Arithmetic and the other branches of mathematics 
have been for centuries valued for the discipline they 
afford. Probably no study in the school course develops 
the mind in so many different ways. Not a faculty 
but is exercised in studying arithmetic if it is studied 
properly, and it may be adapted to the mind at any stage 
of its growth. Arithmetic gives some culture to mem- 
ory and to perception, although at first we might over- 
look the fact. It requires complete mental concentration, 
and thus offers a high form of culture to the attention. 
It gives, in the advanced work, constant exercise to the 
judgment, and trains it to the closest discriminations. 
Then every derived equation is a logical deduction from 
those preceding, and is reached by continuous reasoning, 
developing the reasoning powers. Some of its truths 
are axiomatic, and are comprehended as an act of intui- 
tion. Many parts require an exercise of the imagination, 
and the definitions require the nicest kind of discrimina- 
tion between ideas and their expression. It is true its 
conclusions are definite, specific, and capable of verifica- 



154 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

tion, and from this cause does not train in probable 
reasoning as in questions of social, political, and eco- 
nomic problems. It gives, however, more than any other 
school stud}^ mental power, logical habits of thought, and 
training in persistency. Our texts on arithmetic may 
need pruning; some subjects should be omitted and 
placed in the appendix, some of the puzzles assigned to 
algebra where they belong ; but unless many of the newer 
subjects in our curriculum can show culture value of the 
highest type, we should not be too radical in our changes 
in arithmetic. 

Too much time is spent in arithmetic for the results 
achieved. This is due to several causes : — 

1. There is lack of intensity in the study. Children 
are allowed to snooze over their work, to acquire habits 
of mental indolence, to let their thoughts go wool-gath- 
ering, to kill time instead of learning clear, sharp busi- 
ness methods. 

2. There is too much formalism. We hold to form 
and neglect content. We give more attention to the 
husks than to the corn, to the exterior form than to the 
thought back of it. The hundred per cent, method in 
percentage, excellent as it is, may be reduced to little else 
than a set form. I remember well one of my teachers 
who was such a stickler for form. He would receive 
nothing unless it were arranged according to a specific 
model. I recall one problem in compound interest placed 
on the board in which there were forty-four equations. 
Not an equation short of that would have been accepted, 
and the class were gulled into the notion that we were 
studying arithmetic. A study of the history of arith- 
metic shows the old method of number work in which 
long division was made longer still by being arranged in 



ARITHMETIC 165 

fantastic shapes resembling ships, etc. What lessons the 
history of pedagogy might teach to the thoughtful. 

3. Pupils are not trained to read the problem and to 
grasp the conditions. Fifteen years' experience with ad- 
vanced classes leads to the conclusion that much of the 
trouble comes from lack of power to read. It is their 
English rather than their arithmetic which is at fault. 

4. Pupils are not trained to accuracy in the four fun- 
damental processes. They cannot add, subtract, multiply, 
and divide. It is said the superior work in arithmetic 
in the German schools is due to the long and excellent 
drill given in the fundamental processes. Then, when 
the pupils come to the advanced work, they are not handi- 
capped by inaccuracies on the mechanical side. 

5. Arithmetic is taught in scraps and fragments in- 
stead of as one logical whole. Each new subject is 
taught as something separate and apart from all the 
others. Pupils are pushed into the new subject without 
taking an inventory of what they already know which 
will apply to the subject. There are comparatively few 
things to learn in any of the subjects in arithmetic which 
are entirely new, but the study of each subject should 
be preceded by a review of what is already known and 
what must be used again in the new subject. 

6. Mental arithmetic is neglected. There is nothing 
better than mental arithmetic to pave the way for ad- 
vanced work in written arithmetic. The teacher states 
the problem orally, the pupil states the conditions, and 
then gives a good logical solution and the conclusion — 
what can be better training for advanced arithmetic ? A 
neglect of mental arithmetic leads to poor interpretation 
of the condition of the problems of written arithmetic. 



156 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

AIMS IN TEACHING ARITHMETIC. 

Good teaching of arithmetic should accomphsh these 
ends, and in the order named : — 

I. Accuracy. This should include accuracy in result, 
accuracy in reasoning, and accuracy in expression. Math- 
ematics is an exact science. The arithmetic in after life 
which is not exact to the unit is of poor quality. We 
accept as high-grade work in class a solution of nine 
problems out of ten. It is no wonder boys thus trained 
are found short when tested by the business man's stan- 
dard. How long would the banker hold his place if one 
out of ten of his results was wrong? Suppose the clerk 
makes but seventy-five per cent, in his business calcu- 
lations, would he pass? Yet that would give a passing 
grade to most pupils in school, even if the testing were 
only upon results alone. But there should be accuracy 
in reasoning as well. Pupils must be trained to give the 
reason for their operations. We are content if pupils 
call numerical results, but it is far better training for 
pupils to tell first what the result will be by naming it, 
and then later give its numerical value. If you want to 
find the value of a field 80 rds. long and 40 rds. wide at 
$10.00 per acre, have pupils explain that they multiply 
the length of the field by the breadth, which will give its 
area in square rods, or 3200 sq. rds. Then there are 160 
sq. rds. in an acre, and there will be as many acres in the 
field as 160 is contained times in 3200, which is 20. If 
one acre costs $10.00, twenty acres will cost twenty times 
$10.00, or $200.00. Therefore the value of a field 80 
rds. long and 40 rds. wide at $10.00 per acre is $200.00. 

So many of our teachers are content with the mere 
manipulations of figures. The emphatic part of the 



ARITHMETIC 157 

above is that zvheii you uiultiply the length of the Held 
by the width it zmll give you the area of the Held, while 
too often we emphasize the numerical result 3200 until 
the pupil loses sight of the fact that it is the area of the 
field. The name of the result and its numerical value 
cannot be divorced without detriment to the child. Ac- 
curacy in expression must be insisted upon. It is not 
an uncommon thing to see two equations joined in one, 
as, 6 X 5 = 30 + 7. Now six times five does, not equal 
thirty-seven. Numerous inaccuracies in expression, in- 
dicative too often of looseness in thinking, creep in, and 
we must be on our guard to prevent them. The first 
aim of our work in arithmetic, then, should be accuracy. 

2. Rapidity. This is the age of lightning speed. 
Time is precious. Speed is valuable. The labored writ- 
ing is out of date, and the man who is not quick as 
well as accurate in arithmetical calculations is badly 
handicapped in business, and the teaching that does not 
train in quickness as well as in accuracy is not the best 
teaching of arithmetic. 

J. Neatness. This is not as important as the other 
two, but it is far too important to be overlooked. Pupils 
from the very first should be trained to arrange their 
work so that others may be able to read it easily and 
understand it readily. Good taste may be cultivated and 
at the same time originality, and this is worth much in 
many ways in after life. The solution on the blackboard 
that cannot be followed by the stranger who steps into 
the room, provided he understands arithmetic, is lacking 
in one very valuable feature. Logical thinking is apt 
to lead to logical arrangement of the work, and on the 



158 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

other hand, training in careful arrangement of work will 
help to logical thinking. 

THINGS TO EMPHASIZI^. 

Before taking up any specific parts of arithmetic for 
discussion, there are some things to point out which be- 
long to the subject as a whole and which lie at the basis 
of good teaching of arithmetic : — 

1. See that pupils get correct ideas of number. This 
may be done by the use of objects and careful associa- 
tion of the idea of numbers with objects in the early 
stages of number work. Too often number is confused 
with the symbol of number. Children think of figures 
instead of numbers. The symbol 4 is too often to them 
the number four. Five dollars to them is the figure 5 
with the dollar mark to the left. Three feet is the figure 
3 with ft. written to the right. After they have been 
taught to look back of the symbol to the thing symbolized, 
it is necessary for them to get clear conceptions of 
standards of length, capacity, weight, etc. They should 
learn to measure the foot, the yard, and the inch by the 
eye as well as by the yard-stick. Note what wild esti- 
mates even high school pupils make in guessing distance, 
largely because they have never had a clear conception of 
the standard of length in mind. Many children in the 
grammar grades have little conception of a quart or a 
gallon or a bushel. Institute work has revealed to me 
that a large per cent, of the teachers do not know that 
there is a difference in capacity between a dry and a 
liquid quart, or a dry and a liquid pint, to say nothing 
of having a clear conception of the size of them. 

2. Teach ideas instead of words. Teach pupils to 
go back of symbols to the thought. Teach that fractions 



ARITHMETIC 159 

are parts of things, and that they are expressed by two 
numbers, one above the other, a short horizontal line be- 
tween. Do not confuse the fraction with its expression. 
Decimals are fractions whose indicated denominator is 
ten or some power of ten. The difiference between com- 
mon fractions and decimals is in the way they are ex- 
pressed. Principles should precede rules, and the pupils 
should understand the terms. I do not advocate that 
pupils should never commit the language of the book, 
but the teacher must make sure that they understand 
the language first. 

3. Each new^ subject should be correlated with the 
subjects that have preceded it. See that pupils get the 
relation of facts and new principles to those they have 
already learned. Each new term should be explained 
and understood, and the old knowledge reviewed and 
made ready for use in the new subject. It is the constant 
recalling and re-enforcing of the old knowledge and its 
use in its logical connection which makes it efifective 
and gives mental power. When the class study decimals 
they must be able to readily recall and use any principles 
of common fractions they have already learned. When 
they study percentage, they have very little new to learn 
if they are apt in the application of the principles of 
decimals. If they learn percentage properly, there is 
little else to learn in interest. 

4. Insist upon accuracy in the fundamental operations 
of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. 
These subjects do not get enough attention. Pupils by 
long, laborious, and continual effort solve the problems 
given in their text-books in these subjects. If it requires 
a third or a tenth trial it matters not, just so they get 
rne answer. This kind of work will not suffice. They 



160 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

need drill — quick, spirited, lively drill — until their re- 
sults may be depended upon. We lose much time by 
rushing pupils on into the more intricate processes and 
problems requiring close discrimination and reason be- 
fore the reasoning powers are capable of development. 
This time should be spent in perfecting them in the more 
mechanical processes and making them accurate, and the 
time lost here will be regained tenfold by quickness in 
the solution of problems later. Percentage with all of 
its various applications should be taught to a class in one 
month if they were properly prepared. Nine tenths of 
the trouble and time is in correcting mistakes in the fun- 
damental operations, and not in the principles and ap- 
plications peculiar to percentage. Take that subject, the 
bug-bear to pupils and teacher alike, partial payments. 
More than three fourths of the time lost upon it is caused 
not by the number and difficulty of its principles, but in 
correcting mistakes in the fundamental operations. The 
pupil makes a slight mistake in multiplying near the first 
of the problem, or a mistake in subtracting the dates, 
and a long solution must be performed again. Confused, 
tired, disgusted perhaps, with the whole thing, he thinks 
partial payments are hard, and '' he knows nothing about 
it," and the teacher agrees with him most heartily. The 
pupil concludes it is partial payments that is hard, when 
the fact is, it is his addition, subtraction, and multiplica- 
tion which are at fault. 

Let me insist that teachers make their pupils accurate 
in the fundamental operations early. Drill, drill, give 
credit for getting the answer the first time. Do not 
hurry. The fourth year class, accurate and quick and 
well drilled in the fundamental operations at the end of 
the year, will complete the practical arithmetic well in 



ARITHMETIC 161 

three more years, with the eighth year to review the 
subject as a whole. Our pupils begin number work as 
a study too young, and are trained to inaccuracy and 
indolent habits. The child who begins number work at 
eight, when ten years old will often surpass the child who 
began the work at six, and spent two years learning 
indolent habits in dealing with numbers. 

5. Before the class takes up a new subject, let the 
teacher arrange definitely the definitions and principles 
and new facts which are essential to the understanding of 
the new subject. With these definitely in mind and with 
the principles already learned by the pupils clearly before 
the teacher, a little planning on the teacher's part will 
make it possible for him to get good results with the least 
waste of time. 

PARTICULAR SUBJECTS DISCUSSED. 

Oral Number.— In the last few years there has been 
much discussion of methods of teaching primary number, 
the Grube, the Ratio, and other methods being quite 
prominent. These > can be found discussed in school 
journals and books prepared especially on number work. 
An enthusiastic teacher who believes in his method, and 
has an earnest desire to get results with the children, will 
succeed with either of the various methods. The Grube 
method was very popular a few years ago, and still has 
many wise and skilful adherents. Its basis of instruc- 
tion is the individual number instead of the operation, 
and from the start, the four fundamental processes are 
taught together. In teaching any number, all possible 
operations within the limits of the number are made. 
As stated above, the method used is of less impor- 
tance than a determination on the teacher's part to get 
results. Do not, in country schools, disgust boys and 
ti 



162 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

girls with number work too simple. Few country boys 
of the rough-and-tumble kind, start to school without 
knowing how to count. They know they must give old 
Charley five ears of corn, the work horses seven, and 
the mules three each feed. They know how many pigs 
each sow has, and how many eggs old Speck sat on, how 
many chickens she hatched, and how many spoiled eggs 
they got to take up in the orchard to break. The country 
boy has argued the question with his younger sister, that 
there being five eggs to break, he should break three of 
them and she two, and the argument was so convincing 
that it wound up by his getting to throw four instead of 
three. That at least was my experience as a country 
boy. I do not remember the time when I could not make 
any combination of numbers as high as ten. I went 
through Ray's old Practical Arithmetic the winter I was 
ten years old, including the one hundred miscellaneous 
problems and the metric system at the back of the book. 
It never occurred to me then, or now, that T was above 
the average boy in arithmetical ability. 

Addition. — A decimal system of numbers is a system 
in which ten is the radix. Ones are grouped into tens ; 
tens into tens of tens or hundreds, etc. Explain and 
illustrate this grouping by bundles of splints. 

Explain the sign of addition and its meaning. Like 
numbers only can be added. 

Teach the addition table thoroughly. There are but 
forty-five combinations possible. These are : — 



1 + 1=2 


2 + 2 = 4 


3 + 8 = 6 


1 + 2=3 


2 + 8 = 5 


3 + 4 = 7 


1 + 8 = 4 


2+4 = 6 


3 + 5 = 8 


1 + 4 = 5 


2 -j~ 5 = 7 


8 + 6 = 9 


1 + 5=6 


2 + 6 = 8 


8 + 7 = 10 



ARITHMETIC 1G3 

1+6 = 7 2 + 7 = 9 e-} + 8 = 11 

1 + 7 = 8 2 + 8 = 10 8 + 9 = 12 

1+8=9 2+9= n 
1 + 9 = 10 

4 + 4 = 8 5 + 5 = 10 () + 6 = 12 

4 + 5 = 9 5 + 6 = 11 6+7 = 13 

4 + 6 = 10 5 + 7 = 12 6 + 8 = 14 

4 + 7 = 11 5 + 8 = 18 6 + 9 = 15 

4 + 8 = 12 5 + 9 = 14 
4 + 9 = 18 

7 + 7 = 14 8 + 8 = 16 9 + 9= 18 
7 + 8 = 15 8 + 9 = 17 
7 + 9 = 16 

Vary these in every possible way. Drill until the 
combinations are firmly and indelibly made in the mind. 
Teach pupils to add by endings. Show that any num- 
ber added to 9 gives the right-hand figure one less than 
the number added to it. Thus 9 and 8 give the right 
hand figure a 7, etc. Make all possible combinations with 
9. Show that any number added to 8 gives the right- 
hand figure two less than the number added. Thus 5 and 
8 give the right hand figure 3. Make all possible com- 
binations. Continue with the other numbers. 

Give a number of problems for seat or home work, 
and for oral practice in the recitation. After the endings 
are learned, hold to accurate, rapid work. Take the 
following : — 

324 

483 

878 

967 

745 



164 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

Teach pupils to add, simply calling 12, 20, 23, 27, as 
they add the first column. Leave out all and's and are's. 
Then as the second column is added they should point, 
saying rapidly, 6, 12, 19, 27, 29. Then in the third 9, 18 
26, 30, 33. 

Lead them to answer the following questions : How 
were the above numbers written for addition? Why? 
Which column was added first? Why? When the sum 
of any column was more than ten, what was done ? Why ? 
When the answers to these questions are clear to them, 
let them formulate the rule for addition. 

What must be true of numbers before they can be 
combined into one sum? What is the denomination of 
the sum? 

Teach pupils the tests of accuracy : — 

1. Add the columns in reverse order. 

2. Separate the problems into two or more problems 
and unite the results. 

3. The excess of 9's in the sum of the digits in the 
addends must equal the excess of 9's in the sum of the 
digits. 

Subtraction. — Teach the sign of subtraction and its 
meaning. Arrange the subtraction table and drill 
thoroughly in the eighty-one primary problems. Nei- 
ther rapidity nor accuracy can be possible until the differ- 
ence between the following pairs of numbers can be 
given readily : — 
2—1 3—1 4—1 5—1 6—1 7—1 
3__2 4 — 2 5 — 2 6—2 7 — 2 
4—3 5—3 6—3 7—3 
5—4 6—4 7—4 
6—5 7—5 
7-6 



ARITHMETIC 165 

8 — 1 9 — 1 10 — 1 11 — 2 12—3 18 — 4 

8 — 2 9 — 2 10—2 11—3 12—4 13 — 5 

8 — 3 9—3 10—3 11—4 12—5 13 — 6 

8 — 4 9—4 10 — 4 11 — 5 12 — 6 13 — 7 

8 — 5 9 — 5 10 — 5 11 — 6 12 — 7 13-8 

8 — 6 9-6 10 — 6 11 — 7 12—8 13-9 

8 — 7 9 — 7 10 — 7 11 — 8 12 — 9 

9 _ 8 10 — 8 11 — 9 12 — 10 

10 — 9 11 — 10 12 — 11 

14 — 5 15-6 16 — 7 17 — 8 18 — 9 

14 — 6 15 — 7 16 — 8 17 — 9 

14 — 7 15 — 8 16 — 9 

14 — 8 15 — 9 
14 — 9 

There are two methods of " borrowing." One re- 
duces the digits in the minuend, and the other increases 
the digits in the subtrahend. It matters not which the 
teacher uses. In a beginning class teach only one method. 
In advanced classes let pupils use either. Any arithmetic 
will give an explanation. For illustration, from 732 take 
564. (i) Now since the first term of the minuend is 
less than the same term in the subtrahend, one of the 
terms of the subtrahend may be reduced to ones and 
this added to the first term. Ten ones plus 2 equals 
12 ones. 12 minus 4 equals 8. Now apply the same 
process in the other columns. 

Multiplication. — Show that multiplication is a short 
method of finding the sum of two or more equal num- 
bers. 

Explain the sign of multiplication and the two ways 
of reading it. When the multiplier comes first, it is 
read " times ; " when the multiplier comes last, it is 



106 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

read '' multiplied by." See that pupils understand the 
terms multiplicand, multiplier, and product, and show 
them that the multiplicand may be an abstract or a 
concrete number, that the multiplier is always an ab- 
stract number, and the product always like the multi- 
plicand. See that pupils understand how the multi- 
plication table may be derived, and that they have it 
thoroughly committed. Seeing how the rule is derived 
is good, but to attempt to teach multiplication without 
having pupils commit it to memory is a foolish waste of 
time. 

Teach pupils to understand why we write the partial 
products as we do. Thus if we are multiplying 524 by 
223,— 

(i) We are to imite two hundred twenty-three 524's 
First we unite three 524's, then twenty 524's, then two 
hundred 524's, and then write the several products. 

(2) 3X524=1572 ones. 

(8) 20X524=2X10X524 ones. 

(4) 200X524=2X10X10X524 ones. 

These partial products then united will give the com- 
plete product. , 

Teach the following tests for accuracy : — 

1. Use the multiplicand for multiplier. 

2. Divide the product by either the multiplicand or 
the multiplier, the quotient must be the other. 

Division. — Teach the division signs and their use. 
If multiplication has been properly taught, division will 
give little trouble. Teach short division thoroughly 
before long division. If long division is taught first, 
children are apt to neglect short division, and lose much 



ARITHMETIC 167 

valuable time in solving problems by long division which 
should be solved by short. When long division is taken 
up, use problems which could be readily solved by short 
division until pupils have mastered the mechanical ar- 
rangement. Do not lose patience. Long division was 
the hardest subject in arithmetic for me, and it was due 
to the neglect of the teacher to show me how to arrange 
the mere mechanical part of the work. Give drill work 
until pupils are quick and accurate. 

Lazv of the Signs. — The class having now completed 
the four fundamental processes, teach the law of the 
signs. Authors are not quite a unit on these, but the 
following seem to be the best, and will perhaps soon 
be accepted by all : — 

1. The signs of addition and subtraction take prece- 
dence over the signs of multiplication and division. 

2. The operations of multiplication and division 
should be performed in the order of their occurrence. 

3. If there is a' variation from this, it should be indi- 
cated by one of the signs of aggregation. For illustra- 
tion : — 

5+3x6^2+8—2X2=18 
5+3X6-^(2+8)— 2X2=2.8 

Compound Numbers. — Teach pupils the essential dif- 
ference between simple and compound numbers. In com- 
pound numbers the scale varies. In simple numbers the 
scale is uniform. The only difference between addition 
of simple numbers and addition of compound numbers 
is that in simple numbers ten units of each lower order 
make one of the next higher, while in addition of com- 
pound numbers the scale varies with the table and with 



168 MANAGBMBNT AND METHODS 

the denomination. Sometimes three units of a lower 
order make one of the next higher, sometimes forty and 
sometimes seventeen hundred twenty-eight. 

See that in the beginning pupils understand thor- 
oughly the processes of reduction descending and reduc- 
tion ascending. When this is well taught with the first 
few tables, there is little else to learn but the new tables. 

Group the tables, preparing an outline to fit your 
text-book, and see that pupils get a bird's-eye view of the 
subject. Time is wasted by a heterogeneous mixing of 
tables until pupils are confused. Some time spent in or- 
ganizing and getting well into the pupils' minds the use 
of the different tables, is a great saving. When pupils 
know the tables and understand clearly the difference be- 
tween the fundamental operations with simple numbers 
and compound, then addition, subtraction, multiplication, 
and division of compound numbers will ' give them no 
trouble. 

Longitude and Time. — This is one of the little bug- 
bears of arithmetic. In a teachers' institute requests for 
explanations of difficult subjects are seldom asked for 
without this being in the list. It is sure to be requested 
some time during the week, if teachers are asked to 
suggest subjects for discussion. There is no reason 
why teachers should find longitude and time hard to 
teach. Let these points be made clear, and let the teacher 
illustrate with a globe. 

1. 360° make a circle. 

2. The earth turns on its axis once in twenty-four 
hours, and turns from west toward the east. 

3. Thus in one hour it will turn -2V of 360°, or 



ARITHMETIC 



169 



15°. From this we get the relation between time and 
longitude as follows : — 

1 hr.=15° 
1 min.=15' 
1 sec. =15" 

1°=A hr. 
l'=iV mill. 
I'—iVsec. 
4- The earth turns from west toward the east and as 
the time at any place is based upon the relative position 
of the sun to the meridian of that place, all points east 
of us until we pass half round the earth will have later 
time, and all points west will have earlier. Hence if we 
have given the time at one point and required the time 
at a pomt east of it, we add the difference in time If 
west, we subtract the difference in time. 

5- The difficulty comes from thoughtlessness of pupils 
They fail to station themselves in imagination at the 
point having the given time, and then ask in which direc- 
tion IS the time required. Thus when it is school time 
or 9 o dock A. M., in Chicago, what is the time in Boston? 
^et them stand in imagination in Chicago. Then as 
Boston lies east of them, they will add the difference 
m time to 9 o'clock to get the time in Boston. 

6. Another difficulty comes from finding the difl^er- 
ence in longitude, when, for example, one is 20° E and 
the other 40° W., or when one is 170° E. and the other 
160 W., and so on. Five minutes' explanation with a 
globe or ball should make this clear. 

7- The International Date Line causes some confu- 
sion, especially when the day of the week and the month 
are required. This, too, can be made clear by the use 
of the globe. 



170 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

Decimals. — • Pupils should have a clear and accurate 
understanding of decimals because of their importance 
in operations with percentage. After pupils understand 
the difference between common fractions and decimals, 
it requires only a few new facts and some thoughtful 
drill to make them proficient in decimals. These simple 
but specific directions, well mastered, will help : — 

1. Pupils should have at their tongue's end the num- 
ber of decimal places up to millionths. That is, they 
must know that tenths has one figure, hundredths two, 
thousandths three, ten-thousandths four, hundred-thou- 
sandths five, millionths six. No sooner is ten thousandths 
mentioned than the child should know that there are 
four figures in it. The mind should respond to this 
as quickly and as accurately as the hand does to making 
the figure as the number is called. 

2. They should use the word and only between whole 
numbers and the decimal. Thus 325.025 is read three 
hundred twenty-five and twenty-five thousandths. 

3. The last word in the statement names the decimal 
This is very important. Take these two statements : — 

(i) Write two hundred thousandths. 
(2) Write two hundred-thousandths. 

The first is written .200, for the name of the decimal 
is thousandths, and there are two hundred of them. 
The second is written .00002, for the name of the decimal 
is hundred-thousandths, and there are two of them. The 
only difference in the statements is the compound word 
indicated by the hyphen, making the first thousandths 
and the second hundred-thousandths. With these three 
things thoroughly understood, the writing of decimals 
becomes easy. 



ARITHMETIC 171 

The operations with decianals are so similar to those 
of simple numbers that careful planning on the part 
of the teacher will make them easily taught. 

Percentage. — Make clear the terms base, rate, and 
percentage. Explain clearly the first formula, BXR^P. 

From this fundamental formula develop all the others. 
If pupils have been properly taught, they need only to 
remember the fundamental formulas in percentage, and 
from these they may derive the others. 

Make an outline of the applications of percentage 
to suit the text-book you are using. This will give your 
pupils a view of the subject as a whole. Teach them 
to distinguish carefully what is given and what is re- 
quired in each case. Then teach them to apply the 
proper formula for finding the missing term. It is well 
to have pupils state clearly and definitely what is given 
and what is required. For example, in the problem : — 

" In a flock of 250 sheep 25 of them died. What per 
cent, of them died?" 

Have pupils make out a statement as follows : — 

B=250. 
R=? 
P=25. 
Formula: P---B=R. 

After they see clearly what is given and what is 
required, let them perform the operation. Remember 
that until your class can give a clear, definite statement 
of what is given and what is required, all work is hap- 
hazard. Too much time is wasted in figuring without 
knowing just what is wanted. It is blind efifort in the 
hope of securing the answer. Good teaching makes sure 
that the pupil knows just what he is seeking in the prob- 
lem. 



172 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

After percentage with its. many applications is taught, 
there remain but few other subjects properly belonging 
to arithmetic. Involution and evolution should be thor- 
oughly taught. In beginning evolution do not waste 
valuable time in teaching the reason for the rule. Pupils 
must be able to find the square and the cube root before 
much advancement can be made in algebra or higher 
arithmetic. Teach the pupils thoroughly the mechanical 
process, and make them quick and accurate in finding 
the square or cube root of numbers, telling them that 
the explanation of these rules belongs to geometry and 
algebra. If you have arithmetical geniuses in the class 
who want to know the reason for the rules, explain 
them, but with many of the class a month's time would 
not make the reason any clearer, because it is beyond 
their mathematical comprehension, while in two weeks' 
time they should be fairly accurate in the process. 

Let me insist that teachers have pupils learn the 
squares of all numbers up to twenty-five and the cubes up 
to ten. They should know these as thoroughly as they 
know the multiplication table, being able to name the 
squares or cubes as rapidly as the teacher calls the num- 
bers, or to. name the roots as the squares and cubes are 
given. To teach these will require but little time, but 
it will be a time saver ever afterward to the pupil. In 
solving a problem in square root, if the pupil cannot tell 
at a glance the largest square in the left-hand period, 
he is at a great disadvantage. In fact, he can secure the 
first figure of the root only by trial or guess work. In 
cube root it is just as necessary to see at a glance the 
largest cube in the left-hand period. To fail or to neglect 
to see that the pupils know thoroughly these squares and 
cubes is unpardonable in the teacher of these subjects. 



ARITHMETIC 173 

• 
When the pupils see the number 589, they should know 
that the largest square in that number is 576, and that 
the root of the square is 24. When they see the number 
400, they should know instantly that the greatest cube 
contained in it is 343, and that the root of this cube is 7. 
With such knowledge they have the first figure of the 
root instantly, and then with a little drill on the me- 
chanical arrangement the other figures are quickly and 
accurately found. 

Mensuration and its various applications should be 
thoroughly taught. No part of arithmetic is more prac- 
tical in after life, and at the same time nothing gives 
more culture. So many pupils leave school before study- 
ing geometry, and mensuration is so important that its 
use in arithmetic is justifiable. 

Pupils properly prepared can in a few weeks get a 
practical knowledge of mensuration. Almost every rule 
can be clearly explained and illustrated by the thorough 
teacher and brought into the comprehension of the class. 

A clear, definite outline made to embrace your au- 
thor's treatment of the subject will be very helpful. This 
may be complete enough to include the different rules 
and principles of each subject. The pupils should have 
this outline thoroughly in mind, and be able to reproduce 
it from memory. 

No subject in arithmetic gives better results than 
mensuration when properly taught. If the teacher is 
alive to its interesting features, full of his subject, and 
gives sufificient well-chosen illustrations and supplemen- 
tary problems, the pupils will be enthusiastic over the 
work. If they are not interested, it is almost invariably 
the fault of the teacher. 



XXII. GEOGRAPHY 

The: word geography is of Greek origin, and means 
literally a description of the earth. It is claimed with 
much truth that geography is not so much a science 
within itself as a collection of facts from various sciences. 
Chemistry, physics, geology, botany, and zoology each 
and all contribute to what is commonly called geography. 
Geography is frequently divided into mathematical, po- 
litical, and physical. But this division will not be care- 
fully followed here. 

Of all the studies of the school course geography 
and history are the most liberalizing and humanizing. 
The man ignorant of geography must be of very minor 
importance in the world ; while, on the other hand, a 
man familiar with geography must, in a sense, be edu- 
cated. The great inventions of the last century have, in 
a large sense, annihilated space. New York and San 
Francisco are nearer together to-day than New York 
and Philadelphia were in Washington's time. The study 
of geography, through the cultivation of the imagination 
and the other faculties, annihilates space to the pupil. It 
brings the peoples of the world, with their manners and 
customs, their religion and their life, to the pupil, and is 
a wonderful liberalizing force. Narrow-mindedness is 
largely another name for ignorance. Men who have seen 
much of the world, and especially if they have come in 
contact with the life of the people, grow tolerant in their 
opinions, and have more sympathy and interest in the 
community as a whole. The right study of geography 
174 



GEOGRAPHY 175 

will be to the boy or girl what traveling is to the man 
or woman. 

What should the intelligent man know of geography? 
This should determine the ultimate object of teaching it. 
In geography, as in other studies, if there is a definite 
object in view, methods and devices will be readily found. 
The intelligent man wants to know something of the 
manners and customs, the religion and races, the stand- 
ing and civilization of the people of the world. He wants 
also to understand the phenomena of nature and the 
physical features and possibilities of the continents. This 
explains many of the peculiarities of nations and races, 
the soil and the climate, and the natural conditions 
of the continents. Not only this, he sees the gateways of 
the world, and the importance of location, and the possi- 
bilities of the future. He sees also the influence of indi- 
viduals, as well as the industry and thrift of the people 
as a class, and knows the transforming influence of 
these upon the locality or the country. This being among 
the things which the intelligent man should know about 
geography, the study of the subject should aim at these 
results. 

It must never be forgotten, however, that the child 
cannot think the man's thoughts. He is gathering and 
grouping and storing facts from which general deductions 
and intelligent conclusions will afterward be formed. 
The study of geography, then, like any other subject, 
must be adapted to the mental capacity of the pupil. 

There are two general methods in the study of geog- 
raphy, the analytic and the synthetic. The combining of 
these methods would perhaps be the most intelligent 
teaching. Those advocates who use the analytic method 
claim for it the following advantages : — 



176 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

1. It enables the teacher to use a globe from the 
very first. 

2. It gives a correct view of the size, relation, and 
direction of countries. 

3. It enables the teacher to explain the causes of 
day and night, and many other natural phenomena, early 
in the school course. 

4. It follows the law so generally accepted as final 
that we should go from the whole to its parts. 

Perhaps neither of these four contains the whole 
truth. 

The advocates of the synthetic method claim for its 
advantages : — 

1. That the teacher can illustrate from familiar ob- 
jects, and thus create more interest. 

2. That he follows the pedagogical law of proceeding 
from the known to the related unknown. 

3. That it teaches pupils the most important geog- 
raphy of their own section and State before the study 
of remote places and people. 

4. That it gives the child a definite meaning of geo- 
graphical terms from the very first. 

In the analytic method the teacher begins with the 
world as a whole, its size, shape, motion, etc. Then comes 
the division into hemispheres, zones, and later into conti- 
nents, countries, states, counties, communities, and lo- 
calities. In the synthetic method the child begins with 
the home and farm and school-yard, or the city, and 
goes to the township or district and community, the 
State, the country, the continent, the earth as a 
whole. The better method is to begin with the syn- 



GEOGRAPHY 177 

thetic, teaching pupils something- of the school-house and 
grounds, and later the township, county, and State. It 
must be remembered, however, that the average child, 
after you pass his immediate neighborhood, will grasp 
the thought of the earth as a whole almost as readily as 
of the country or continent. To a child " away up in 
the country " is just as incomprehensible as away out in 
California or away over in Europe. 

In beginning with the school-house and grounds, 
pupils may be led to determine directions and distance, 
to draw^ maps of these familiar objects, and to locate 
direction and distance on maps. After the child is thor- 
oughly familiar with these things pertaining to his im- 
mediate surroundings, it is an easy transition to other 
surroundings. They come in contact with geography first 
from nature rather than from books. Agassiz, the great 
teacher of natural science and all that pertains to nature, 
says in regard to teaching geography, "Let us not at 
first resort to books, but let us take the class into the 
fields, and point out the hills and valleys, rivers and 
creeks, and let the' pupils learn out of doors the points 
of the compass. Then having shown them these things, 
let them compare the representations with the realities, 
and the maps will have a meaning to them. When I 
was in the college of Neuchatel I desired to introduce 
such a method of teaching geography. I was told it 
could not be done, and my request to be allowed to in- 
struct the youngest children in the institution was re- 
fused. I resorted to another means, and took mv own 
children, my oldest, a boy of six years, and my girls, 
four and a half and two and a half years old, and invited 
the children of my neighbors. Some came upon the 
arms of their mothers, others could walk without assist- 

12 



178 MANAGBMBNT AND METHODS 

ance. These children I took upon the hill above the city, 
and there showed the magnificent peaks of the Alps and 
told them the names of these mountains and the beau- 
tiful lakes opposite. I then showed them the same things 
on a raised map, and they immediately recognized the lo- 
cality, and were soon able to do the same thing on an 
ordinary map. From that day geography was no longer 
a dry study, but a desirable part of their education." 

This paragraph from Agassiz is full of suggestion to 
the thoughtful teacher. 

Maps should mean more to children than mere bits 
of colored paper. The black line representing the river 
must not be a black line simply, but the child in his 
imagination must see the river " seize the hills in its 
hands, and drag them down to the ocean." The black 
dots representing cities must in the child's mind be built 
into thriving cities with the push and noise of busy life. 
Mountains should be something more than wave-like 
lines across the page. Rocky crags, deep ravines, snow- 
capped peaks with their wonderful, awe-inspiring scenes, 
must be so pictured that the child sees them in his 
imagination. 

Begin geography with the child's immediate surround- 
ings, and constantly appeal to his imaginative power. 
Do not forget also that geography is closely linked with 
reading, history, literature, and language. Encourage 
the reading of books of travel, stories of foreign people, 
descriptions of wonderful natural objects, and historical 
events. Use to advantage numerous pictures, drawings, 
modelings, and moldings. 

Take your class on imaginative journeys, visit his- 
toric spots, go on summer outings and exploring expedi- 
tions, have the class describe the changing scenes and 



GEOGRAPHY 170 

wonderful things which may be seen and heard on such 
explorations. Much interest will be added to the study, 
and geography become a living subject. 

Do not forget the study of physical geography, even 
in the lower grades. It may not be called physical ge- 
ography always. I'he cause of rain fall, deserts, winds, 
tides, day and night, changes of the moon and the sea- 
sons, may be studied, and although they cannot be clearly 
explained to the mind of the child, something of their 
causes may be given, and this will incite interest and fur- 
ther study later. Also the modifications of climate. Early 
in the study of geography direct the pupil's attention 
to the importance of commerce and commercial centers in 
the building and development of cities. Note also how 
the life of the people may be modified by the climate and 
soil. Minnesota with her waving fields of wheat, Mis- 
sissippi with her fields of cotton, neither will ever com- 
pete with the other in these two productions. But the 
climate makes a great difference in the customs and hab- 
its, the clothing and to a certain extent the conduct, of 
the people. Soil and climate lie at the very basis of cor- 
rect interpretation of institutions. 

After pupils grow familiar with their text-book on 
geography, nothing is better than a topical outline for 
the study of a state or a country. It helps the pupils to 
classify what should be known. The teacher may ar- 
range the outline to suit his own judgment. The pupils 
are then to gather the information from any source to 
which they have access. The outline given below may 
be modified to meet the needs of the class, but each mem- 
ber should have it neatly copied and before him in the 
preparation of the lesson as well as at the recitation :— 



180 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

OUTUNE FOR A COUNTRY OR CONTINENT. 

I. Location. 

1. Latitude. 

2. Longitude. 

3. With reference to other countries or bodies of 

land and water. 

n. Size. 

1. Area. 

2. Compared with your own State. 

3. Length and breadth. 

in. OutHne. 

1. Indentation. 

(i) Seas. 

(2) Gulfs. 

(3) Bays. 

(4) Estuaries. 

(5) Deltas. 

2. Projections. 

(i) Capes. 
(2) Peninsulas. 

3. Connections. 

(i) Isthmuses. 
(2) Straits. 

4. Islands. 

. (i) Continental. 
(2) Groups. 

IV. Natural Features. 

I. Land. » 

(i) Mountains. 

a. Ranges. 

b. Peaks. 
(2) Plateaus. 



GEOGRAPHY IS] 



O' 



(3) Plains and Valleys. 

(4) Watersheds. 
Water. 

(i) Rivers. 
(2) Lakes. 
5. Climate. 

( 1 ) Temperature. 

(2) Rainfall. 

(3) Healthf Illness. 
4. Soil. 

V. Productions. 

1. Natural. 

(i) Animals. 

(2) Agricultural Products. 

(3) Minerals. 

2. Artificial. 

( I ) Manufactures. 

VI. The People. 

1. Races. 

2. Appearance^ 

3. Manners and Customs. 

4. Occupations. 

5. Number. 

VII. Enterprise. 

1. Cities and Towns. 

2. Commerce. 

3. Public Works. 

4. Manufacturing. 

5. Railroads. 

6. General Improvements. 

VIII. Institutions. 

I. Government. 



182 MANAGEMHNT AND METHOD^ 

(i) Republican. 
(2) Monarchial. 

2. Education. 

3. Religion. 

IX. Miscellaneous. 

MAP DRAWING. 

Map drawing serves a useful purpose in the study 
of geography. Like drawing as a separate study, the 
greatest value of map drawing is that it cultivates obser- 
vation. It should begin in the early school years with 
the map of the school-room. In this simple map, be 
true to the conventional directions, making the top of 
the map correspond with the north, the right hand to 
the east, etc. This is quite essential. Locate the win- 
dows and doors, the teacher's desk, the stove, etc., and 
teach from the first something of relative size and po- 
sition. Do not forget also to have the same map drawn 
large and small, thus teaching the scale of the map. 

After pupils are thoroughly acquainted with the map 
of the room, extend it to the other rooms of the building 
if there are more than one. Then to the school grounds, 
taking care always that directions are carefully observed. 
Extend it then to the school district, the township, and 
later to the county and State. Along with this local 
map drawing may be taught much civil government and 
history in the oral geography work. In studying the 
county seat, have the county officials named, and the 
main duties of the offices pointed out. 

After pupils are thoroughly familiar with map draw- 
ing as applied to the local surroundings, they are ready 
to draw maps of States and countries. The greatest 
purpose of map drawing is not simply copying the map 



GEOGRAPHY 183 

from the book, but the holding of the shape of the 
State or country studied, in mind, so that the pupil may 
readily draw a map which would be recognized. This 
should be free-hand drawing. The accurate measure- 
ment of intersecting lines may be taught as an exer- 
cise, but maps so constructed do not have the educa- 
tive value that free-hand drawing gives. The pupils 
should be taught to look at the map, and then to draw 
it from memory. In the early stage of map drawing, 
map tracing by a thin paper may be sometimes used to 
advantage, but should be discarded for the free-hand 
drawing as soon as possible. 

Map drawing gives a clear interpretation, and the 
ability to read a map correctly is very essential to cor- 
rect geographical ideas. 

The teacher of geography must never forget the 
close connection between geography and the other studies, 
such as reading, history, language, etc. All the his- 
torical events should be located" geographically. In 
studying the Mexican War, review the geography of 
Mexico, and see that pupils are able to map the cam- 
paigns of Scott and Taylor accurately. In reading 
of natural wonders, teach the class to associate them 
carefully with the place. It is not good teaching when 
the class has an idea that this or that is away off some- 
where. They should know in what continent and country 
it is located. 

DEVICES IN TEACHING GEOGRAPHY. 

In geography, as in every other study, pupils enjoy 
variety. The teacher must have attention, he must haye 
interest, or his teaching is a failure. The following 
suggestions may be helpful : — 



184 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

1. Make good use of pictures, drawings, moldings, 
etc. 

2. Take your class on zig-zag journeys, having them 
describe what may be seen or found in the places vis- 
ited. 

3. Have one pupil describe a river while another 
guesses the name. 

4. Have one pupil name a river, and then the teacher 
or some pupil designate who shall describe it. 

5. Have each pupil in the class select ten brief, simple 
questions on the lesson. Then each pupil in turn reads 
the question and designates who shall answer it. Other 
pupils having the same question draw a line across it. 
This will give a variety of questions, many of which are 
excellent, and if properly used, this exercise is intensely 
interesting. 

6. Have the pupils write on the board as rapidly as 
they can the names of the rivers or the cities of the 
country or continent. Then, facing the teacher, each 
pupil in turn is asked to read one of the names and 
describe it, or tell where located. Any pupil having this 
name draws a single mark through it. Pupils will 
take a delight in seeing who can write and describe the 
most. 

7. Have pupils draw maps on the board and leave it 
to the vote of the class which is the best map. If the 
teacher has the right influence and control over the pu- 
pils, the voting will be done honestly. 

8. Encourage pupils to collect specimens of wood, 
flowers, fossils, minerals, insects, agricultural and man- 
ufactured articles from each country they study. A 
school cabinet, where such specimens can be properly 



GEOGRAPHY 185 

labeled and kept, will be of great interest and profit to 
the class. 

9. Do not forget physical and mathematical geogra- 
phy. Have pupils explain and illustrate by drawing 
many of the natural phenomena, such as change of -sea- 
son, the tides, rainfall, the causes and direction of winds, 
ocean currents, land formations, the carrying power of 
streams, the origin of mountain ranges, and numerous 
other subjects in physical geography. 

10. Have pupils do much written work, such as writ- 
ing short paragraphs upon topics assigned, questions and 
outlines, or a written recitation by the topical method 
in which each pupil is given a topic and sent to the 
board to write, say for five to fifteen minutes. x\ssign 
such topics also for preparation, and have them read 
and criticized in class. 

11. Dictate to the pupils the names of the rivers of 
the continent or country, and have them indicate by an 
arrow the direction which they flow. 

12. Encourage recitation by topics. Call the topic 
and then call for Volunteers. See that the topic is clearly 
stated, and if any point is omitted, let others volunteer 
to give the additional information. 

13. Teach pupils how to study the lesson. On many 
subjects half of the time is lost because the pupils do 
not know how tq study. Have them read the lesson 
through thoughtfully and afterward review it by topic. 

14. Have each pupil name the State or country, and 
some pupil describe its climate, products, natural objects, 
and resources. 

15. Let a pupil name the State while the next below 
names the capital of it, and so on around the class. Vary 



186 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

it by having them name the capital while the next names 
the State or country. 

1 6. Have pupils write a complete list of questions 
on a geography lesson, questions which the pupil thinks 
will bring out the important points of the lesson. This 
is an excellent drill in discriminating the important from 
the non-important. If they ask the teacher a question 
which he cannot answer, let him frankly and honestly 
say so, and let him try to find it out as soon as possible. 

17. Require much supplementary work. The pupil 
who depends entirely upon his text-book in geography 
will never learn a great deal of geography. Send him 
to the magazines, newspapers^ school journals, encyclo- 
pedias, the advanced texts on geography, geology, and 
other subjects for his information. 

18. In studying about other countries, have the pu- 
pils note the characteristic things about the people, their 
habits, occupations, dress, morals, and civilization. 

19. If possible, have pupils familiar with some of the 
noted songs and poems of each country. Associate 
Burns's poems with Scotland, Shakespeare with En- 
gland, Dante with Italy, etc. The localizing of history 
and biography is a great awakener of thought, and 
serves to fasten the event indelibly with the country. 



XXIIL LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION 

Thd language lesson should precede formal grammar. 
It deals more with the art side of language. It is of 
more importance to the great mass of pupils. It may, 
if properly taught, increase the fluency, freedom, and 
accuracy of a child's expression. It should begin with 
the child's introduction to school, and English in some 
of its phases may well be studied in every grade, even 
throughout the university course. 

The aim of language work is correct habits in the 
use of language. The only way this can be accomplished 
is by persistent, thoughtful drill until the use becomes 
habitual. The study of rules and principles will not ac- 
complish the desired result. They may help later. They 
may fortify the pupil in the use of correct forms, and 
help to weed out improper forms ; but a knowledge of 
rules does not guarantee correct English. The language 
in its proper form must be so wrought into the child's 
very being that when his mind is occupied with the 
thought, the proper expression will be easy and natural. 
The language class is not the place to study and re- 
cite the simple rules of grammar. The rules given should 
be few, and these should have as their direct object the 
use in the child's oral or written language. It is the 
place for the child to think, to talk, and to write ; and 
while this is being done, the teacher should give care- 
ful attention to the form of expression. Correct forms 
should be emphasized and incorrect ones weeded out. 
As the child cannot be expected to take a lively interest 

187 



188 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

in mere dry language forms, they must be given inter- 
esting things to think and talk and write about. This 
will give occasion to use these forms in expressing 
thought. The child cannot, at this stage, be interested 
in words as words. The explanations of forms and the 
etymology of words, which may be ever so helpful to us 
as adults, can have no interest for the child. Hence the 
language unit should be the sentence. Correct and in- 
correct forms will appear in these, and when these single 
words are then isolated for correction, the pupils may 
realize the aim of their fragmentary study. 

Scope of the Work. — Much of the work of the teacher 
of language must be directed to correcting bad habits 
of speech already formed. Were children all from 
homes of refinement and culture and pure language, the 
teacher's task would be lighter. The use of language 
is learned by imitation. The child will use the correct 
form or the incorrect with equal readiness. Many of 
us have struggled long and hard to overcome the in- 
correct language habits formed in early life, and have 
only partially succeeded. When we see children so fortu- 
nately situated that they grow up without these habits 
so hard to overcome, it would seem that unless their ac- 
complishments were great, their failure were greater. 

What should be accomplished in the first and second 
year's work in language in the common school? The 
following is surely not too much : — 

1. To write, punctuate, and capitalize correctly — 

1. Simple statements. 

2. Simple questions. 

2. To recognize readily — 

I. Name words. 



LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION 18;i 

2. Action words. 

3. Place and time words. 

4. Common Adjectives. 

5. Pronouns. 

3. To use correctly — 

1. Is and are. 

2. Was and were. 

3. Has and have. 

4. Do and done. 

5. Saw and seen. 

6. Sit and set. 

7. Lie and lay. 

8. A and an. 

9. This and these. 

10. That and those. 

11. Who and whom. 

4. To capitalize proper nouns and all abbreviations prop- 

erly. 

5. To distinguish and use correctly the plurals of nouns, 

and to recognize and use properly the singular and 
plural verb forms. 

6. To write a simple letter, description, or story, correct 

in mechanical form and language. To accomplish 
this will require work and drill on the part of the 
teacher, but it can be done. 

It is true there are many errors in speech and writ- 
ing, and yet almost all of them may be classed under one 
of four heads : — 

1. The plural form of nouns. 

2. The agreement of noun and verb. 

3. The case forms of pronouns. 

4. The tense forms of verbs. 



190 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

To these we may add four others belonging more to 
the mechanical side: — 

1. Misspelled words. 

2. Wrong punctuation. 

3. Wrong capitalization. 

4. Paragraphing. 

We then have before us the problem of language 
teaching. There are a number of good language books 
on the market for the primary grades. 

Let teachers remember, however, that books, ex- 
cellent as they are in the hands of a good teacher, may be 
made the dryest kind of lifeless formalism in the hands 
of an incompetent teacher. The teacher's soul must be 
in the work. He must be a worthy model for his pu- 
pils, and he must have such a burning desire to get 
results that he will work persistently to improve the 
language of the pupils. 

COMPOSITION. 

To many pupils and most teachers composition is a 
bugbear. To mention it is to suggest a sigh, and a wry 
face is not a rare thing to be seen in a class when the 
subject of composition is announced. The first duty of 
the teacher is to overcome this prejudice on the part of 
pupils. Until this is done, little can be accomplished 
in the way of real progress. Much can be done to 
make the composition lesson a real pleasure to pupils, 
and I have known classes to petition the teacher to let 
them write compositions rather than do other work in 
English. 

Not all compositions are written. Writing is only 
one form of expression. Every one finds some way of 
expressing himself. If it is not in words, it is in facial 



LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION igi 

expression and actions. As long as we are unconscious 
of this expression we enjoy it, but when we be^in to 
write, our thoughts are clogged, our words will not come 
and our sentences are clumsy and only half express ou; 
meaning No one enjoys what he knows he doe. 
poorly. It IS only after much practice that we write as 
readily as we talk. When pupils learn that every con- 
versation of theirs is a composition, and that to write 
the same words on paper would make a written compo- 
s..on,^hey begin to lose some of their prejudice agaiLt 

Mr. Palmer, in his "Self-cultivation in English " 
very aptly says: " First, then, look to your speech it 
IS commonly supposed that when a man seeks literary 
power, he goes to his room and plans an article for the 
press. But this is to begin literary culture at the wrong 

wrt Th T'^- " '""'"' ''""^ '"' '^'^y t™- w! 
write. The busiest writer produces little more than a 

voW a year -not so much as his talk would amount 
to in a week. Consequently through speech it is usually 
decided whether a man is to have command of his lan^ 
guage or not. If he is slovenly in ninety-nine cases 
.n talking, he can seldom pull himself up to strength and 
exactitude m the hundredth case in writing." The same 
rVrL^^!^^^"- ''-' ''^"^^ -^ '"-est unde^r": 

Composition, or the constructive phase of English 
divides readily into two parts, which may be callef the' 

rrditS^^"^*^"^"^^^^'^'-'^^- ^— a^ethes: 

and^htf "t"";'"" ■^'■'^^-G-duates from our common 
and high schools are wofully deficient in this. How 
many of them can write a letter respectably accurate 



192 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

in form, correct in spelling, punctuation, and paragraph- 
ing? When we read the circulars from business col- 
leges guaranteeing positions to all sorts of persons after 
two to four months' study, we wonder if ignorance is 
bliss. They do not, however, guarantee their graduates 
to hold the positions any definite length of time. No 
young person can hope to make even a respectable be- 
ginning in a clerical career until he has thoroughly mas- 
tered the mechanical part of English composition. 

This mechanical — while I designate it as mechanical 
I am well aware there is a thought basis for it — includes 
(i) spelling, (2) punctuation, (3) paragraphing, (4) 
arrangement of written work. Let us discuss each 
of these briefly before taking up the thought side, and 
yet keep in mind that too much attention to form in 
the early stages of composition is deadening to the 
thought. 

I. Spelling. — (i) The only test of spelling is in zvrit- 
ing. This carries with it, then, the suggestion that much 
of our drill in spelling should be through writing. The 
muscles must be trained to execute accurately the thought 
of the mind. This can be done only by careful and per- 
sistent practice in all written exercises. 

(2) Train pupils to notice nfords accurately. There are 
many rules for spelling, but, like the systems of mem- 
ory training, most of them are as hard to remember 
as to remember the words themselves. It is a great ac- 
complishment to learn a new word accurately from the 
first, so that you have a clear mental picture of it. 

(^) Use the dictionary persistently. No other way will 
give more growth. One of the hardest working pupils 
who ever came to school to me, and one whose growth 
was noticeable from day to day, was a girl who per- 



LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION 193 

sistently used an academic dictionary and used it in- 
telligently. She studied carefully the spelling and 
derivation of every new word she met, and really mas- 
tered it. 

(4) Re-read all mitten zvork. Mistakes overlooked at 
first will now be readily recognized, and should be cor- 
rected. A habit of careful revision is a most excellent 
thing. 

(5) Never allow a misspelled zvord to go uncorrected. 
This should apply to all written work from the first. 
We too often allow any sort of hap-hazard spelling in 
all subjects except spelling in the composition class, and 
then wonder why pupils do not spell well there. Spell- 
ing, like one's religion, is for constant use and not for 
Sunday parade. 

2. Punctuation. — Punctuation is of great importance, 
and yet it is partly a matter of taste. Teach pupils to 
observe the change in sense by change in punctuation. 
An Irishman entered a barber shop, got a shave without 
offering to pay, waited some minutes, and asked for his 
drink. The barber was astonished. The Irishman 
pointed to a sign, reading it thus : " What do you think ? 
I'll shave you for nothing, then give you a drink?" 

The barber corrected him at once, reading it as fol- 
lows : '' What ! Do you think I'll shave you for noth- 
ing, then give you a drink ? " 

The mayor said, "The teacher is a donkey." 

" The mayor," said the teacher, " is a donkey." 

(i) Pupils should be taught to study carefully and 

observe closely the punctuation of our best edited books. 

The purpose of punctuation is to make clear the thought 

of the writer. Question pupils upon why certain punc- 

13 



194 MANAGBMBNT AND MBTHODS 

tuation marks are used. Write paragraphs omitting all 
punctuation, and see how hard they are to read. Differ- 
ent readings of ancient authors are due largely to differ- 
ent punctuation. They wrote without punctuation marks 
of any kind, and modern scholars insert the punctuation 
to fit their own interpretation of the thought. Make a 
list of the most prominent uses of the different marks of 
punctuation, and have pupils find illustrations of them 
in their reading. 

(2) Do not overpunctuate. The last few years has 
seen quite a reaction in regard to punctuation. Punctu- 
ation which does not modify the thought or aid the 
eye in the interpretation of the page, is useless and the 
tendency is away from it. 

J. Paragraphing. — The paragraph is of compara- 
tively recent date. It serves an important purpose in ob- 
taining the thought from the page. Paragraphing is a 
difficult subject. Teach pupils to observe carefully the 
paragraphs of well-edited books. Each teacher should 
have a few good books on composition and especially 
on the paragraph. 

Teach pupils : — 

(i) To make each distinct topic a paragraph. Out- 
lining a subject has its advantages. If the pupils have 
an outline of the subject carefully in mind, each sub-topic 
should be treated in a paragraph. The disadvantage 
of outlining the composition is that it is apt to become 
stiff and formal. 

(2) To see that the paragraph treats of but one sub- 
ject. This is the best test of the paragraph. The first 
and last of the paragraph being the more emphatic posi- 



LANGUAGB AND COMPOSITION 195 

tions, the first and last sentences taken together should 
suggest the central thought of the paragraph. 

4. Arrangement of Written Work. — Uniform -pa- 
per is the best. The size, quality, color, etc., may be 
left to the taste of the teacher. Legible writing, neat- 
ness, and taste in arrangement of form are worth much. 
In letters, notes of invitation, general correspondence, 
and the like, follow the forms which custom prescribes. 
Show individuality without violating good taste. The 
following rules have been used quite successfully : — 

(i) Write on one side of the paper only. 

(2) If ink is used, it must be black. 

(3) Size of paper, 8 1-2 by 11 inches, with marginal 
line 3-4 of an inch from the left. 

(4) Write the title in the middle of the page i 1-2 
inches from the top, underscore three times with a wavy 
line. Begin the principal words of the title with cap- 
itals. Write the name on the second line beneath the 
title and to the left, beginning at the marginal line, and 
the date on the same line at the right. Underscore name 
and date twice with wavy lines. 

(5) Begin each paragraph at least one inch to the 
right of the marginal line. Begin all lines except the 
first line of the paragraph at the marginal line. The left- 
hand side should be straight except the beginning of para- 
graphs, and these should be indented an inch or more. 

(6) Do not divide syllables at the end of a line. 
Space so the right-hand margin will be reasonably even. 

(7) Be careful about paragraphs. It is a common 
fault that pupils want to begin each sentence on a new 
line. 



196 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

(8) Fold your paper once lengthwise, writing your 
•name and the date in the upper left-hand corner. 

(9) Neatness is worth much in composition work. 
As an aid in correcting papers, have a correction plan 

in which certain letters or signs indicate certain mistakes. 
This is useful as a time saver. Mistakes may then be 
indicated very quickly by the teacher, and the pupil 
left to study them more carefully and make corrections. 

The Thought Side. — The thought of the composition 
is the essential. Pupils cannot write until they have 
something to say. When they feel that they have a 
story worth telling, composition becomes a delight. The 
choice of a subject is important. It is one of the difficult 
tasks of the young teacher. Many of us have found 
that the task is half done when we have determined upon 
a subject, and the same is true of the pupil. The fol- 
lowing suggestions may be helpful : — 

( 1 ) Choose subjects the pupils know something about. 
There is a tendency in young persons to choose abstract 
subjects, such as Truth, Honor, Virtue, The Stream of 
Time, Spring, Hope, etc., — subjects which Emerson 
may well have chosen for essays. Notice the titles of 
the graduation essays in our common and high schools. 
How seldom we find one which is suited to the boy or 
girl of twelve or sixteen. 

(2) Choose concrete subjects. A child can tell about 
his own dog long before he can write of dogs in gen- 
eral. Let the little girl write about her own doll, her 
own canary, her own play-house, instead of these things 
in general. Have pupils describe their own school-house 
and grounds, their own home, their own school-room. 
Let the test be how well a stranger would know their 



LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION 197 

home, their school-house, their school-room, etc., after 
reading their description of it. No test is better than 
the self-testing habit of reading the composition after 
it is written as if the writer were a stranger, and then 
see whether the composition will give him a clear view 
of the object or subject. 

(3) The subjects should be those in which pupils 
are interested. Until you can interest pupils in a sub- 
ject, you can get only labored expression. Some of us 
would find it a difficult matter to write upon Greek or 
Hebrew, because we know little of these subjects and 
care perhaps less for them. Too many of our com- 
position subjects are Greek and Hebrew to our pupils. 
We choose subjects in which men and women are 
interested, instead of boys and girls. In teaching com- 
position, as well as in managing a school, it is unfortu- 
nate that teachers so often forget the things of interest 
to boys and girls. 

(4) Reproduction stories are among the simplest of 
composition subjects, and have an endless variety to the 
teachers who will' select and collect them. Three plans, 
fitting the story in each case to the ability of the class, 
are often used. They can be made very simple or they 
can be made appropriate for the advanced class. One 
plan is to read the story to the class and have them re- 
produce it as accurately as they can. This requires care- 
ful attention, and is valuable for that alone. The story 
should be read slowly and distinctly by the teacher, but 
no notes taken. Occasionally a pupil may read the 
story. It may be reproduced at once or for the next 
day's lesson. Another plan is to have the pupil read 
the story once and then reproduce it in the same way. 
Another plan, and an excellent one for creating an inter- 



198 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

est, is to read the plot or setting of the story, and then 
have each pupil complete the story as he thinks it 
should end. 

(5) Biographical sketches are easy and important. 
Study some great character. Tell the story of his life 
to the class as you would something which happened on 
the play-ground. Have them read all they can of him, 
and bring other incidents. After they are full of infor- 
mation, have them plan and write it systematically. 
Then have them write the biographies of prominent men 
in the town or county, of the oldest man they know, 
of the oldest woman they know, etc. Most old persons 
would tell the story of their life and take pleasure in 
doing it, and the children may write it out and report. 
Let me protest against a set form or outline in this work. 
It is a good thing to have a suggestive outline, but they 
must not all be measured by the same topical yard-stick. 
If they are, they will be stiff and formal. 

(6) The autobiography is a good composition subject, 
but by its very nature is limited. Akin to this is the 
imaginary autobiography which may be made very inter- 
esting and of wide application. The autobiography of 
your coat, your knife, a silver dollar, a family horse, a 
sponge, a slate, a pencil, a stove, and numerous other 
things will furnish interesting and instructive exercises 
for your composition class. 

(7) News items give good topics for composition par- 
agraphs. Have pupils conduct a school paper to be read 
once or twice a month before the school. For two years 
while principal of a high school, we conducted a high 
school paper issued in neat, high-grade form, the con- 
tents of which were selected from the composition work 
or written by the pupils for the occasion. It more than 



LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION 199 

paid financially, and was a good stimulus to the pupils. 
It is doubtful however, whether a school paper to be read 
before the school or to be printed can be made a success 
without a censorship. 

(8) Newspaper interviews are good topics for com- 
positions. Send pupils to interview persons upon certain 
topics and to report. If approached properly when not 
too busy, few men of the town will refuse an interview. 
Teach pupils to report with absolute fidelity to the state- 
ments made. 

(9) Favorite games make good topics for composi- 
tion. Let pupils describe them so accurately that the 
uninitiated may understand just how to play them by 
the description given. This makes an excellent test and 
is easily applied, for the pupil can reread his composition 
and see if it is definite. These descriptions will furnish 
excellent subjects for compositions for a week or ten 
days. 

(10) Subjects for debate make interesting subjects 
for composition. Choose subjects of local interest when 
possible. Some years ago my senior class debated how 
to spend $150 so as to beautify our school grounds. Dis- 
cussions were spirited but friendly. Some of the best 
compositions were published in the local papers, and the 
next year saw several beds of flowers, a grass plot, and 
a fountain in front of the school-house, the fruits of 
the discussion, to say nothing of its value as English com- 
position. Teach pupils that reason and argument are 
the things which count in debate, and discourage all per- 
sonalities so often mistaken by the ignorant as argument. 

(11) The study of literature will give numerous sub- 
jects for composition. My note-book on Evangeline 
shows upward of twenty topics used in the past for 



200 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

subjects for composition, and almost any piece of litera- 
ture will give topics for written reviews. 

(12) The imaginary story is one of the most inter- 
esting, as well as one of the most profitable, composition 
exercises. The class are given a suggestive outline to 
be filled out as they see fit. The topics are suggestive 
and yet indefinite. The pupil is free to follow his fancy, 
and it is a splendid way to break the ice in composition. 
So many pupils feel they simply cannot write. Whenever 
they find themselves ready to build the story suggested 
and to follow their own imagination, they can write 
freely. Below are some outlines which have been used 
successfully. Any teacher can readily prepare others 
just as good. Then again, the teacher can make a brief 
outline of some short story he has read, and let the pupils 
dress it up as they see fit. 

The Tricky Goats. 

1. A boy. 

1. His name. 

2. His home. 

3. Kind of boy. 

2. Two goats. 

T. Their name>. 

2. Where he got them. 

3. Breaking them to work. 

4. A new wagon. 

5. An accident. 

6. Result. 

Going Fishing. 

1. Who went. 

2. Digging bait. 

3. Trouble getting ready. 

4. Where we went. 

5. A tangled line. 



LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION 201 

6. The first bite. 

7. A splash. 

8. A feast. 

9. Homeward bound. 

A Day's Hunt. 

1. How I longed for the day. 

2. The start. 

3. My companions. 

4. Our dogs. 

5. The first game. 

6. A bad shot. 

7. A shower. 

8. Our lunch. 

9. An accident. 

10. Something funny. 

11. What we killed. 

12. Our return. 

The Test. 

1. Two Georgia boys in love with the same girl. She unde- 

cided. 

2. A call for soldiers for the Spanish-American War. 

The girl said, " Go defend your country, when you 
return I will give you my answer." 

3. A battle — wounded soldiers — a hospital — lingering 

fever. 

4. A false report. 

5. Preparation for a wedding. 

6. An unexpected visitor. 

7. A sudden change of plans. 

8. Results. 

SUGGESTIONS. 
I. Composition is made a bugbear by many teachers 
by overcriticism. The law is almost universal that a 
person will accomplish more under encouragement than 
under discouragement, and this is particularly true of 
compositions. 



202 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

Some years ago I was boarding in the city. There was 
a boy fourteen years old in the family, who was in the 
first year high school. He was a good boy, but not fluent 
in speech. Give him a hammer and a saw and a plane 
and some nails, and he could express himself, but it was a 
laborious task to do it on paper. The third week of 
high school he had to write a composition. He worried 
about it. His subject was " The Uses of the Beautiful." 
His teacher was a college graduate of high standing, and 
could have used a good-sized slice of beauty himself to 
advantage. The boy worked three hours on his composi- 
tion, and then brought it to my room. It was stiff, but 
it showed honest and long-continued effort. He copied 
it carefully, and went to school next day light hearted. 

Three days later he came home despondent, and 
hardly reached the room until he cried bitterly. He re- 
ceived his essay, and really it looked as if it had had 
the smallpox. It was literally cut to pieces and covered 
with red ink. At the bottom, in a shamefully scrawling 
hand, was the comment, '' You will have to do better 
than this if you pass in English." Shame on a teacher 
who makes such comment on a pupil's best effort. Do 
you think that made his thoughts flow freely and his 
pen glide swiftly and accurately upon the next composi- 
tion? What a difference it would have made to have 
written, '' You made several mistakes, but you will im- 
prove, and I think you can do better next time." It is 
only the careless and indifferent who need such harsh 
statements. Then the teacher corrected every error, even 
to recasting the sentences to give them more strength. 
Had he confined his corrections to one or two faults, it 
would not have been so discouraging, and at the same 



LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION 203 

time the emphasis centered upon these mistakes would 
have probably prevented their recurrence. 

2. Pupils are tonguetied in expression, and to loosen 
their expression is the first duty of the teacher of com- 
position. The experience of most of us when we began 
writing compositions was that as soon as we took up our 
pencil our thoughts were gone. We could not think 
and write at the same time. Practice alone will over- 
come this. The only way to learn to write is to write. 
To learn to swim without going into the water is per- 
haps as easily done as to learn to write without practic- 
ing. Get the pupil interested in the subject. When he 
wants to talk, it is only a step to the written composition. 
Encourage the timid ones. Commend honest effort. 
It is not so much where they stand and what they can 
do, but in what direction they face and their rate of prog- 
ress, that counts. Some pupils feel that they simply 
cannot write, and nothing helps them so much as en- 
couragement when they have made honest effort. 

3. Do not be discouraged as long as there is thought 
in the composition. Pruning is hard work, but it can be 
done. Do not criticize too many things at a time. Teach 
the class to criticize their own work. Have them ex- 
change papers and read them, looking for specific things, 
as misspelled words, proper margins, arrangement of 
paper, poorly constructed sentences, wrong use of words, 
etc. This is useful to the pupil in fixing standards of 
correctness and excellence. Call attention to neat, ac- 
curate papers, and to improvement from day to day. 
There is hope as long as the pupils have something 
to say. They may be crude in expression, but they will 
improve by watchful care and encouragement. 

4. Material for expression first, and then practice, is 



204 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

the order to be followed. Teach pupils to think, then 
write, writing rapidly after their plans are made. If 
they have but half an hour to write, it is well for them 
to spend ten minutes of the time in planning how they 
will treat the subject. '' Out of the fulness of the heart 
the mouth speaketh " was said a long time ago, and it 
is out of the fulness of mind the hand writeth. If pupils 
are to describe a house, out of the abundance of material, 
they must select and plan how to describe it best. At 
first some may tell of the chimneys, then the basement, 
and then the roof, but by talking with the class, telling 
them how to describe it from some particular view- 
point, you can note an improvement in a short time. 

5. Avoid nagging. Perhaps the greatest fault of 
the teacher of composition is the habit of nagging. The 
work is hard and the discouragements are many. Day 
after day the same mistake will be made by some pupil 
in the class, and often by the same pupil, and yet sourness 
and grumbling and fussing and nagging will not cure 
it nor come half so near it as a cheerful appeal to do 
his best, and a kindly reference to any improvement you 
may note, and especially an appreciation of honest effort. 

6. Have pupils write for some audience, real or imag- 
inary. Few of us care to write when no one is to hear 
it or read it. Then again, every composition should 
have a purpose and be written from that standpoint. If 
you will name a purpose, however, when no one, real or 
imaginary, is to read it, it would be a poor one indeed. 
Suppose a pupil is to write a letter to some little Filipino 
boy describing the sport of snowballing. The Filipino 
knows nothing whatever about the snow, and the letter 
would be quite different from a letter to a school boy in 
Ohio describing the sport of snowballing. It is often 



LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION 205 

quite as valuable, and of as much assistance to a class 
to know for whom they are to write as to know of what 
to write. Note what a difference in the tone of your 
letters to different people, even though you speak of 
practically the same things. 

One of the best helps for a pupil is to be taught to 
read his composition after it is complete, criticizing it 
from the standpoint of the reader for whom it was in- 
tended. Is it clear? Is it fully expressed? Is it com- 
plete? Does it give one a definite understanding of the 
subject treated? Such catechizing of one's self is the 
best basis for correction, revision, and rewriting of 
the composition for final disposition. 



XXIV. GRAMMAR 

There) was a time when formal grammar was the 
only phase of English studied in the school. Later a 
reaction came. It was found that pupils, glib in rattling 
off parsing, were often shamefully inaccurate in the 
use of English. The language lesson then came, and 
has gradually pushed its way to the front until we are 
in danger of the other extreme. Formal grammar has 
its place, and a creditable one, in the school course, but 
it should not be introduced as a study until, perhaps, the 
seventh year, and never below the sixth. 

Pupils until that time are not sufficiently developed 
mentally to make a profitable study of grammar. Their 
time is more profitably spent in forming right habits of 
expression, mastering the more mechanical side of Eng- 
lish, and in breaking up improper habits of speech already 
formed, than in delving into the deeper technicalities of 
the science of language. 

There has been much confusion as to the purpose of 
grammar. This crops out in the definitions of grammar. 
Lindley Murray in, perhaps, the first exclusively Eng- 
lish grammar written, gives the following definition : 
" English grammar is the art of speaking and writing 
the English language with propriety." Samuel Kirk- 
ham, whose grammar was only less widely used than 
Murray's, defines grammar as '' The science of lan- 
guage." Thus the two views have held sway since. 
One holds that grammar is an art meant to improve 
the student's use of language, and the other that it is a 

206 



GRAMMAR 207 

science meant to give the student a comprehension of 
the structure of the language. A pleasing definition by 
one who believed that its principles should be the cri- 
terion for accurate expression is, " Grammar is the 
oft-despised servant, but. the ever-loyal handmaid of 
thought's best expression." 

The improvement of the child's use of language be- 
longs primarily to the language lesson, and is based 
upon his power of imitation. The child's habits are 
largely fixed before it begins the study of formal gram- 
mar, and yet the proper study of grammar will uproot 
many inaccuracies and give the reason for the inaccuracy. 
The corrections of mistakes, however, are more inci- 
dental and could hardly be said to be the purpose of the 
study. 

The unit of grammar is the sentence. Use is the only 
test of the part of speech of a word. Upon an exam- 
ination in grammar in the schools of a certain city a 
few years ago, the applicants were asked to give tliree 
adjectives used as adverbs. One replied that an adjective 
could not be used a^ an adverb. If it were used in an 
adverbial sense, it was an adverb and not an adjective. 
He was graded zero upon that point, and yet he was right. 
In an educational journa^ recently a writer took the 
position that if use in the sentence were the test of a part 
of speech, we could have no dictionary. He forgot that 
the dictionary only reflects the usage of words in the 
sentence or in discourse. There is no word in the Eng- 
lish language which may not be used as a noun. Use 
in the sentence being the test, it follows, then, that a 
clear understanding of the sentence with its elements and 
modifiers should form the basis of grammar study. 

There are two methods of approaching the sentence, 



208 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

which may be appropriately called the deductive and the 
inductive. The first starts with the general principles 
as formulated in the grammars and goes to the individ- 
ual facts. The second starts with the individual facts 
and builds up the general principles by comparison and 
classification. It matters little which of these methods is 
used, so long as the teacher gets proper results, and 
good results may be had from either. The second 
method is growing in favor, and under a well-trained 
teacher has many strong points. Perhaps the worst 
failure comes from the teacher who undertakes to teach 
the subject inductively after but a few weeks' study 
of the inductive method. The inspiration coming from 
a few weeks' study at a summer school, he begins to 
apply the method before he is able to make reliable gen- 
eralizations, and both teacher and class are at sea, and 
often without chart or compass. 

Whether the pupil is taught inductively or deduc- 
tively, he should leave school with the ability to analyze 
and classify sentences and point out all ordinary mistakes. 
His knowledge of the sentence should be organized. 
Just the exact form matters little, but he should be able 
to divide it into its elements and classify these elements 
properly. This outline may be suggestive to the teacher. 
He may add to it or take from it, but he should make 
sure that the pupil has a clear and definite outline more 
or less complete in mind. 

ouTUNE OF THE se:nte:nce:. 
i^ Kinds. 

i^ As to rank. 

i^ Principal. 
2^ Subordinate. 



GRAMMAR 209 

I* Substantive, — may be. 

i'' The subject of a verb. 
2^ The object of a verb. 
3^ The object of a preposition. 
4*^ The complement of a copula. 
5^ In apposition. 
6^ Independent. 
2* Adverbial. 

i^ Modifying an adverb or an ad- 
jective to express degree. 
2^ Modifying a verb to express 
i« Time. 
2^ Place. 
3^ Degree. 
4*^ Condition. 
5^ Manner. 
6^ Purpose. 
7® Reason. 
8''" Concession. 
3* Adjective. 

i^ Restrictive. 
2^ Explanatory. 
2^ As to structure, 
i^ Simple. 
2^ Compound. 
3^ Partial compound. 
4^ Complex. 
5^ Complete. 
6^ Abridged. 
3^ As to use. / 

i^ Declarative. 
2^ Interrogative. 
3^ Exclamatory. 

14 



210 MANAGBMBNT AND METHODS 





A' 


Imperative. 




'} Elements < 


of the sentence. 




i2 


According to rank. 






i^ 


Principal. 
I* Subject. 








2^ Predicate - 


— consists of 






i^ Copula. 






i« 


Pure. 






2« 


Impure. 






3^ 


Complex. 






2^ Attribute — may be 






i« 


Noun. 






2« 


Pronoun. 






3^ 


Participle. 






4^ 


Infinitive used as noun. 






5^ 


Noun clause. 






6« 


Adjective. 






r 


Infinitive. 






8« 


Prepositional phrase. 




2^ 


Subordinate. 




2- 


According to structure. 




i^ 


Simple. 






2^ 


Complex. 






3^ 


Compound. 




3^ 


According to use. 






i^ 


Adjective. 






2« 


Objective. 






3^ 


Subjective. 






4^ 


Adverbial. 






5^ 


Attendant. 






6« 


Connective. 








I* Coordinate — coordinate conjunction, 






2* Subordinate. 



GRAMMAR 211 

i^ Subordinate conjunction. 

2^ Relative pronoun. 

3*^ Conjunctive adverb. 

4^ Conjunctive adjective. 

5^ Preposition. 
4^ According to base, 
i^ First class. 
2^ Second class. 
3^ Third class. 

Diagramming has fallen rapidly into disuse the past 
few years. It has many advantages, and the fact that 
it has been abused in the past is no excuse for discard- 
ing it entirely. Many a person can testify that it was 
through diagramming that his first real interest in gram- 
mar study began. There are a number of good systems. 
Each may have its good and bad points. Whatever 
system is used should be uniform in the school, that all 
may understand it. All work should be neatly arranged 
on blackboard or paper. Lines should be neatly drawn 
and the writing neatly done. Do not forget that the 
thought is the essential thing in the sentence, and that 
the purpose of the diagram is to indicate clearly to the 
eye that the pupil has mastered the thought. Do not 
make diagramming a hobby, but used legitimately it is 
an excellent device. 

Pupils should have also a clear understanding of the 
parts of speech with their properties and modifications. 
This knowledge should be organized and definite. The 
pupil should be able to reproduce from memory the 
outline of any part of speech, giving the main divisions, 
modifications, and properties. 

Parsing was once carried to an extreme, but now we 
are swinging too far the other way. Parsing consists 



212 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

in naming the part of speech, telHng its properties and 
modifications, and pointing out its relation to other 
words in the sentence. Its main object is to train the 
pupil to distinguish the use of words, and thus to see 
the relation words bear to one another and the force they 
have in modifying the meaning of a sentence. It does 
not make one more flutnt in writing, but it teaches him 
to understand more clearly the force of language and 
enables him to use it with more precision. Another ob- 
ject is its mental discipline. It trains the pupil to 
verify the definitions and the various parts of speech, 
their subdivisions, and their properties. This is an ex- 
cellent drill. 

Parsing, for beginners, should be simple, consisting 
mainly in naming the parts of speech. As classes, sub- 
divisions, and properties are learned, these may be added 
to the above also. 

Pupils should, from the very first, be taught to give 
the reason for every statement, and this should be con- 
tinued until these reasons are fully understood. In 
parsing a noun let pupils state — 

1. A noun, and why. 

2. Kind of noun, and why. 

3. Gender, person, and number, and why. 

4. Case, and why. 

In the sentence, " Mary bought a book," let the 
pupil state : — 

Mary is a noun, because it is a name. Proper noun, 
because it is the name of a particular person. Feminine 
gender, it denotes a female. Third person, it is the 
person spoken of. Singular number, it denotes but one. 
Nominative case, it is used as the subject of the sentence. 



GRAMMAR 213 

Rule : The subject of a sentence is in the nominative 
case. 

When the pupils have become thoroughly familiar 
with the reason for each step, a briefer form may be 
substituted, and with advanced classes simply the part 
of speech with its subdivision and its construction will 
suffice. 

It is a profitable exercise for pupils to write the 
parsing, as it requires them to think and make up their 
mind on each point. A definite form of abbreviation 
may be adopted for this written parsing and carefully 
adhered to. Using the sentence above, the following is 
a good form : — 

Mary, n., prop., fem., 3rd, sing., nom., used as sub- 
ject, rule. 

Bought, v., trans., prin. parts, buy, bought, bought, 
act., ind., past, 3rd, sing., rule. 

Book, n., common, neu., 3rd, sing., obj., used as the 
obj. of verb bought, rule. 

Let me emphasize in the study of grammar a thorough 
study of the verb. , It is to be hoped that pupils learned 
to use the tense forms correctly in childhood. If they 
did, they are fortunate ; if they did not, the only way 
to break former habits and put them on solid footing 
is by a thorough study of the conjugation of the verb. 
Here, it seems to me, is the greatest weakness of many 
of the recent grammars. Conjugation is scattered. 
There is no adequate summary of the forms. The 
pupils do not get a bird's-eye view of these changes. 
So many pupils are leaving school without the ability 
to use or recognize the voice, mode, and tense from 
the form of the verb. See that your pupils know these 
facts. 



214 MANAGBMBNT AND METHODS 

1. Verbs have an active and a passive voice. 

2. The passive voice is formed by prefixing the vari- 
ous forms of the verb " to be " to the perfect participle. 

3. Pupils must have these forms of the verb " to be " 
at their tongue's end. Do not hesitate to have them 
committed to memory. There is no other substitute. 

4. Verbs have five modes. If your text-book gives 
less, accept it, but make sure of their names and what 
they indicate. 

5. There are six tenses, — the present, present per- 
fect, past, past perfect, future, and future perfect. Your 
text may not call them just these names. Do not find 
fault with this, but follow the text in use, and see that 
your pupils learn them thoroughly. 

6. All these tenses are not found in each mode. The 
Indicative mode has all six of them. The Subjunctive 
mode has three, — the present, the past, and the past 
perfect. The Potential mode has four tenses, — the 
present, the present perfect, the past, and the past perfect. 
The Imperative mode has but one tense, — the present. 
The Infinitive mode has two tenses — the present and 
the present perfect. 

7. The signs of the tenses in the dififerent modes. 

Indicative. 

Present. — The simple form of the verb. 

Present Perfect. — Prefix " has " or " have " to the 
perfect participle. 

Past. — If regular, add " d " or " ed " to the simple 
form. If irregular, consult the dictionary. 

Past Perfect. — Prefix " had " or " hadst " to the per- 
fect participle. 

Future.— Frehx "shall" or ''will" to the simple 
form of the verb. 



GRAMMAR 215 

Future Perfect. — Prefix " shall have " or " will have " 
to the perfect participle. 

Suhjunctive. 

The signs of the subjunctive — if, though, except, 
unless, etc., placed before the indicative forms, give 
the subjunctive. 

Potential. 

Present. — Prefix " may," '' can," or " must " to the 
simple form of the verb. 

Present Perfect. — Prefix " may," '' can," or " must 
have " to the perfect participle. 

Past. — Prefix '* might," " could," " would," or 
" should " to the simple form. 

Past Perfect.— Vv^^^ ''might," ''could," "would," 
or " should have " to the perfect participle. 

Imperative. 
The verb " let," or a plain command with the simple 
form of the verb, indicates the imperative. 

Iniinitive, 

Present. — Prefix the sign " to " to the simple form 
of the verb. 

Present Perfect. — Prefix " to have " to the perfect 
participle. 

8. Conjugation is the correct expression in regular 
order of the voice, mode, tense, person, and number of 
verbs. 

9. The synopsis of a verb differs from the conjuga- 
tion in that only a singular number and person is used. 

Let me insist that advanced pupils must be thor- 
oughly drilled on these points. They are not difficult, 
and they may be made intensely interesting. These points 
well learned give a basis for intelligent testing, and cor- 



216 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

reeling many eommon mistakes in speaking and writing. 
The giving of the signs of the tenses in detail above 
may be pardoned when it is remembered that many of 
our recent grammars scatter such points throughout a 
series of lessons, -with no attempt at summarizing them. 
Teachers and pupils fail to clinch the subject. In a few 
weeks' time a class can fasten these facts in mind until 
they become a permanent possession and an ever-ready 
criterion by which to judge the correctness of their own 
speech or another's. 

Much practice and frequent reviews must follow. 
Drill on it until each member of the class is able to give 
readily either the synopsis or the conjugation of any 
verb in the active voice, and the passive also, if the 
verb can be used in a passive sense. Practice until they 
can give accurately the voice, mode, tense, person, and 
number of any verb with a mere glance at its form. A 
careful study of the verb and the other parts of speech 
gives mental discipline unsurpassed by any subject in 
the school curriculum. 



XXV. LITERATURE 

Literature may well be called the appreciative phase 
of English study. The teacher who can lead a child 
to the proper appreciation of a piece of literature, places 
that child on a higher plane. The beauty, the uplift, the 
inspiration which comes from a beautiful thought clothed 
in beautiful language sinks deep, and eternity alone can 
measure its influence. Where can you find a more po- 
tent sermon, a clearer picture of sordid life, than in the 
prelude of Whittier's "Among the Hills " ? Let our 
pupils commit these lines to memory, and see the picture, 
and the inspiration for better conditions will come, and 
with the inspiration the homes of our country will take 
on a different aspect. 

"I look 
Across the lapse of half a century, 
And call to mind old homesteads, where no flower 
Told that the spring had come, but evil weeds, 
Nightshade and rough-leaved burdock, in the place 
Of the sweet doorway greeting of the rose 
And honeysuckle, where the house walls seemed 
Blistering in sun, without a tree or vine 
To cast the tremulous shadow of its leaves 
Across the curtainless windows from whose panes 
Fluttered the signal rags of shiftlessness ; 
Within, the cluttered kitchen floor, unwashed 
(Broom-clean I think they called it) ; the best room 
Stifling with cellar damp, shut from the air 
In hot midsummer, bookless, pictureless 
Save the inevitable sampler hung 
Over the fireplace, or mourning piece. 
A green-haired woman, peony-cheeked, beneath 
217 



218 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

Impossible willows ; the wide-throated hearth 
Bristling with faded pine boughs half concealing 
The piled-up rubbish at the chimney's back ; 
And, in sad keeping with all things about them, 
Shrill, querulous women, sour and sullen men, 
Untidy, loveless, old before their time. 
With scarce a human interest save their own 
Monotonous round of small economies, 
Or the poor scandal of the neighborhood; 
Blind to the beauty everywhere revealed, 
Treading the May-flowers with regardless feet ; 
For them the song-sparrow and the bobolink 
Sang not, nor winds made music in the leaves ; 
For them in vain October's holocaust 
Burned, gold and crimson, over all the hills, 
The sacramental mystery of the woods. 
Church-goers, fearful of the unseen Powers, 
But grumbling over pulpit tax and pew rent, 
Saving, as shrewd economists, their souls 
And winter pork with the least possible outlay 
Of salt and sanctity; in daily life 
Showing as little actual comprehension 
Of Christian charity and love and duty, 
As if the Sermon on the Mount had been 
Outdated like a last-year's almanac : 
Rich in broad woodlands and in half-tilled fields, 
And yet so pinched and bare and comfortless. 
The veriest straggler, limping on his rounds. 
The sun and air his sole inheritance. 
Laughed at a poverty that paid its taxes. 
And hugged his rags in self-complacency ! " 

But what constitutes pure literature? By what cri- 
terion do we draw the line between literature and other 
forms of writing? What distinguishes pure literature 
from the news article? What distinguishes literature 
from the statements of history or of scientific truths? 



LITERATURB 219 

The criterion is, that the constructive energy of pure 
Hterature is "' universal, ideal, emotional life." 

1. Pure literature must be universal. Lowell tells 
us that a literary man cannot air his private liver com- 
plaint to the public. He tells us again in another place 
his conception of literature : " Literature that loses its 
meaning, or the best part of it, when it gets beyond the 
parish steeple, is not what I understand by literature. To 
tell you when you cannot taste a book that it is because 
it is too thoroughly national, is to condemn the book. 
To say it of a poem is even worse, for it is to say that 
what should be true of the whole compass of human na- 
ture is true only to some north-and-by-half-east point of 
it. I can understand the nationality of Firdusi when, 
looking sadly back to the former glories of his country, 
he tells us that ' the nightingale still sings old Persian.' 
I can understand the nationality of Burns when he turns 
his plow aside to spare the rough burr thistle, and hopes 
to sing a song or two for dear old Scotia's sake. That 
sort of nationality belongs to a country of which we all 
are citizens — that country of the heart which has no 
boundaries laid down on the map." 

2. Pure literature must he ideal. The lessons it 
brings are the ideals of the soul's possibilities. It quick- 
ens in the individual soul the inspirations which are uni- 
versal. The beautiful friendship of Damon and Pythias 
is above our selfishness — an ideal lifting us above our- 
selves, creating in us higher aspirations and showing us 
our own possibilities. There are of course various de- 
grees of idealization. Heroism may be idealized and 
uplifting, and yet not be to the degree of idealization of 
Enoch Arden. The strength and beauty of woman's 



220 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

devotion may be well worth emulation, and yet not reach 
the standard of Evangeline. 

J. Pure literature must he emotional It deals more 
with the heart than the head. The emotions of litera- 
ture are of various kinds, but they may all be summed up 
in the emotions of spiritual freedom. The soul is con- 
stantly struggling to free itself from bondage, and every 
time a limitation is removed the soul leaps with joy. 
Here lies much of the educative power of literature. 
The all-inclusive pleasure of literature is the soul's joy 
in its hopes and its possibilities of freedom. The reader, 
if he really reads, is forced to live the ideal life pictured 
in literature, and thus from day to day his soul attains 
unto higher levels. 

In the study of a selection of literature the first thing 
is to find the author's theme. The second is to test this 
theme by the questions: (i) Is it universal? (2) Is 
it ideal? (3) Is it emotional? These tests will de- 
termine the class of literature to which it belongs. 

The theme of literature is its soul or purpose, but 
this soul must have a body. The writer of literature 
does not speak in abstract terms. He embodies his 
thoughts in concrete, visible forms. The ideal image is 
presented in the real, the universal in the individual, 
and these objective or concrete particulars become types 
or symbols of the abstract or the universal. Thus Hes- 
ter, in the " Scarlet Letter," and Jean Valjean in '' Les 
Miserables," are realizations of universal principles in 
human nature. The building and the launching of the 
ship with Longfellow are typical of human life. He 
who reads " Evangeline " and sees nothing but Evange- 
line the individual, loses most of the poem. Evangeline 
is the concrete, individual form or embodiment of the 



LITERATURE 221 

abstract and universal — woman's devotion. To see the 
universal symbolized by the particular, to see Evange- 
line no longer as an individual, but as a type, an ideal 
to which our own soul may aspire, gives life to the study 
of literature and makes it a monitor to our soul. 

Language is the medium which carries the theme 
through the embodiment to the reader. In other forms 
of art, as sculpture and painting, the embodiment stands 
alone, and the reader must make out of it what he can. 
Literature, however, is more plastic. It may represent 
the change, the rate of progress or development. Lan- 
guage brings a vivid image before the mind, and may 
give the meaning of the image in terms of life. Literary 
language must be beautiful. Its interpretation must 
yield aesthetic pleasure — not only aesthetic pleasure, but 
sensuous pleasure, also. It must caress the ear. These 
pleasing qualities give rise to euphony, rhythm, and 
rhyme in all its various forms. It includes alliteration 
and the balanced sentence. Language has both a form 
side and a sense side. It is the incarnation of thought, 
and the soul is indispensable to the body. Language 
also awakens sensuous pleasure by stimulating the imagi- 
nation and the judgment. The connotation of the lan- 
guage is often more than the denotation. 

In Institute work requests often come for a discussion 
of college entrance requirements in literature. One such 
query asks that the discussion be made for those teachers 
who have charge of the smaller high schools and to 
make it specific so that a teacher with little special train- 
ing may find it helpful. 

I shall begin by saying that the greatest fault, perhaps, 
in the study of such literature is the vagueness and in- 
definiteness of the views of both the teacher and the 



222 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

pupil. The pupil does not know what to look for and 
the teacher does not know what to teach. You cannot 
expect clear-cut, definite knowledge on the part of the 
pupil when the teacher's view of the subject is a vague, 
indefinite, shadowy something, — a ghost-like shape of 
generalities — he hardly knows what. 

The College Entrance Requirements are divided into 
two parts: (j) Those for Critical Study; {2) Those for 
General Reading. 

Taking up the first part, those for critical study, 
I should summarize the aims of the study as follows: — 

1. To secure a careful study of a few representative 

masterpieces of different periods of English Litera- 
ture, and to make this study intensive and reason- 
ably exhaustive. 

2. To secure as complete an understanding of the 

author's thought as is possible. This will require 
pupils — 

(i) To learn all new words with any peculiar 
meaning the author may give them. 

(2) To understand all historical, geographical, 

biographical, Biblical, literary, or mytho- 
logical terms. 

(3) To understand the grammatical structure of 

sentences. 

(4) To understand the force, beauty, and fitness 

of figurative expressions. 

3. To be able to imagine, with vividness and accuracy, 

the places, persons, and scenes as the author saw 
them in his mind's eye. 

4. To feel the emotions the author felt in the creation 

of the literary character. 



LITERATURE 223 

5. To find, as far as possible, the elements of force, 

beauty, sublimity, humor, or pathos, in the author's 
language. 

6. To learn standards for judging literary art. 

7. To learn how to study a selection of literature, so 

the method can be used in the study of other se- 
lections. 

8. To store the mind with gems of prose and poetry, 

to assimilate them and recite them orally, with force 
and effectiveness. 

9. To appreciate the selection studied. This is one of 

the greatest aims, and upon it depends the effective- 
ness of literature as an uplifting force in the lives 
of pupils. 

The second part of those selections for general read- 
ing are to be studied mainly outside of the class-room. 
The aims are : — 

1. To acquire the power of reading books intelligently 

and more or less rapidly under the guidance of the 
teacher. 

2. To present written reports, or abstracts of books read. 

and to show in these reports the ability to apply the 
principles and methods learned in the critical study. 

3. To write brief essays on topics assigned from the 

books read, showing the power to read and assimi- 
late. 

These aims are legitimate. The best preparation 
on the part of the teacher is careful and intensive study 
of the selection itself. Then, if possible, let him read 
the criticisms and notes of some one who has made litera- 
ture a special study. Avoid overcriticism and do not 
dwell upon the minor details too much until the pupils 



224 MANAGBMBNT AND METHODS 

have a view of the selection as a whole. The selection 
should be read to be enjoyed rather than to be picked 
to pieces and destroyed. 

Inquiries come also from teachers who have but a 
limited knowledge of literature. They do not feel them- 
selves able to go into the forces back of hterature, and 
yet want specific help. 

Let us take up that great American classic, '' Evange- 
line." I feel that it is almost unpardonable for a boy 
or girl to leave school at the end of the common school 
course without having read and become familiar with 
this beautiful poem. Its sadness, its sweetness, its pu- 
rity, its simple story, its beautiful language, and its noble 
sentiment combine to give it interest to the pupil and to 
make it an uplift to better emotions and a higher life. 
I say I feel that it is almost unpardonable for a pupil 
to complete the common school course without having 
read this poem, and still more so for the teacher not to 
have studied it carefully, especially since it may be had 
post-paid in a very readable form for a few cents. 

Much of the success of the work comes from the 
teacher's familiarity with the poem. He should read 
it and re-read it and study it critically until he is familiar 
with it in all its details. This careful reading will pro- 
duce enthusiasm in the teacher if there is any about him, 
and enthusiasm is as contagious as the smallpox, with- 
out its harmful results. 

I should recommend the following order of study 
for the class: — 

I. Have the class familiar with the main facts of 
the author's life. This will be one of the best incentives 
to read other poems written by him. They may read 
his biography, or the teacher may give the main facts 



LITERATURE 225 

of his life and have the pupils copy them in their note 
books. 

2. Give a brief history of Acadia. This historic set- 
ting is necessary to a proper understanding of the poem. 

3. Read the poem with the class, giving particular 
attention to the story. You can gauge the pupil's appre- 
ciation of the poem by the way he reads. The teacher 
may well read passages often, giving natural expression 
to the pathos, and teaching pupils to avoid that monoto- 
nous sing-song tone so often heard in the reading of 
poetry, 

4. Read the poem a second time, marking the beau- 
tiful passages and having pupils point out why they 
are beautiful. 

5. Composition work based upon '' Evangeline." 

6. Have pupils commit many of the beautiful quo- 
tations. 

This can be made very interesting, and no teacher 
should fail to have the pupils store their minds with the 
beautiful expressions — gems of thought and sentiment, 
jewels of their kind — which will bless and brighten and 
uplift in after years. 

7. Study the language and form of the poem as 
critically as the advancement of the class will permit. Re- 
member, however, that literature belongs to the apprecia- 
tive phase of English, and do not disgust the pupils with 
dry forms. Let your criticism be more toward pointing 
out the good than the bad qualities. 

When the pupils have read the poem and reviewed it, 
they should have the story in mind something as indi- 
cated by the outline given below : — 

15 



MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

ouTUNE o^ evangelinb:. 
Introduction. 

i^ A description of Acadia. 
2^ Foreshadowing of the story. 

Part I. The; Banishme:nt. 

i^ EvangeHne's home, 
i^ Grand Pre. 
2^ Evangeline's family. 

I* Description of Benedict. 
2'^ Description of Evangeline. 
3^ The house and surroundings. 
2^ Evangeline's childhood, 
i^ Her playmates. 
2^ The sports. 

I* Watching the blacksmith. 
2* Coasting. 

3* Searching the swallow's nests. 
3^ Evangeline's youth, 
i^ Suitors. 
2^ Gabriel. 
4^ The betrothal. 

i^ Time — Indian summer. 
2^ The evening. 

I* Scene outside. 
2* Scene inside. 

i^ Benedict singing. 
2.^ Evangeline spinning. 
3^ The contract. 

I* The parties, 
i^ Benedict. 
2^ Basil. 
3^ Evangeline. 



LITERATURE 227 

4^ Gabriel. 

5^^ The notary. 
2* Rumors of English fleet. 
3* Rene Leblanc's favorite story. 
4* The dowery. 





5* The singing. 




6* The parting. 


4' 


Evangeline's musings. 


5' The 


day of the proclamation. 


i^ 


The feast of betrothal at Benedict's. 




I* The feast. 




2^ The dancing. 




3* The fiddler. 


2^ 


The assembling of the men at the church, 


3^ 


The proclamation. 




I* Provision of. 




2* The eflfect of. 




i^ Basil's Protest. 




2^ Father Felician's appeal. 




3^ The prayer. 




4^ The resignation. 



4^ Loneliness of Evangeline at home. 
Preparation for exile. 

i^ Gathering of household goods by the 

women and children. 
2^ The march from the church to the seashore. 
3^ Confusion on the shore. 
4^ The burning of Grand Pre. 
5^ Death of Benedict. 
6^ Evangeline swoons. 
7^ Burial of Benedict. 
8^ The embarkment. 
9^ The departure. 



228 MANAGBMBNT AND METHODS 

3^ Part II. The Wandering. 

i^ Scattering of the Acadians. 
2- Evangeline's search for Gabriel, 
i^ Trip down the Mississippi. 

I* Scenes along the shore. 

2* They leave the Mississippi. 

3* Evangeline's dream. 

4* The Passing of Gabriel. 
2^ Basil's home. 

I* The meeting. 

2* His prosperity. 

3* The merry making. 





4' 


Evangeline's sad musings. 




S' 


The departure. 


3^ 


Trip 


to Adayes. 


^ 4^ 


Trip 


to the Ozark Mountains. 


5^ 


The Shawnee woman. 


6' 


The 


mission. 




I* 


The Black Robe chief. 




2* 


The stay at the mission. 


r 


The 


cabin in Michigan. 


S' 


The search ended. 


,2 Evangeline's resignation. 



i^ The pathway cleared. 
2^ Gabriel not forgotten. 
3^ Evangeline's hope. 
4^ Becomes a Sister of Mercy. 
4^ The meeting. 

i^ The pestilence. 
2^ The hospital. 
3^ The recognition. 

4^ The prayer — " Father, I thank thee. 
4} The Conclusion. 



LITERATURE 229 

When the pupils have mastered the poem as a whole 
and have also the details of the parts as the outline above 
indicates, they have plenty of material for short composi- 
tions. Few teachers will find any trouble in securing 
interest in this work. Have pupils read the composi- 
tions in class. Point out the good qualities of the differ- 
ent compositions. Commend where you can. Do not 
discourage. Do not point out too many mistakes in 
a paper, especially if the pupil is timid. Make your 
severest criticism on those who can do well but have 
neglected to do so. 

In my copy of Evangeline the following topics for 
written work are found : — 

1. Describe Grand Pre. 

2. Write a description of Benedict's home. 

3. Write a character sketch of 

( 1 ) Evangeline. 

(2) Benedict. 

(3) Rene Leblanc. 

4. Describe an Indian summer day in Acadia in 1755. 
^ 5. Tell the story of the betrothal. 

6. Relate the notary's favorite story. 

7. Describe the betrothal feast. 

8. Describe the scene at the church upon the reading 

of the proclamation. 

9. How the evil tidings were received by the women. 

10. The preparation for departure. 

11. The last night in Acadia. 

12. The death of Benedict. 

13. Draw a map showing Evangeline's wanderings. 

14. The trip down the Mississippi. 

15. The journey to Opelousas. 

16. Basil's Southern home. 



230 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

17. Basil's appearance and welcome. 

18. A feast at Basil's. 

19. The pursuit of Gabriel. 

20. The Indian woman's story. 

21. Evangeline at the mission. 

22. Evangeline's search after leaving the mission. 

23. Evangeline, a Sister of Mercy. 

24. The meeting. 

25. Two graves. 

These twenty-five topics are only suggestive. The 
teacher may change, omit, or add to them at pleasure. 
The length of the written article may vary. Teach the 
pupil to write the story or description so that the listener 
may get a clear understanding by hearing it read. 

The class is now ready to go into a critical study of 
the poem. How far they shall go is to be determined by 
the teacher who knows the ability of the class for this 
kind of work. The following outline may indicate the 
study : — 

i^ Words. Make a list of the words which are new to 
the pupils. 
1 2 Definition. 
2^ Derivation. 
3^ Use in the sentence. 

2^ Grammaticai, Construction. See that pupils get 
the sense from the reading. This may require the 
diagramming and analysis of some of the sentences. 
Do not spoil the literature, however, by too much 
drudgery of this kind. 

3^ Figures of Speech. 

1 2 Make list and explain use of. 
i^ Similes. 





LITERATURE 231 


2^ 


Metaphors. 


3^ 


Personification. 


4^ 


Metonymy. 


5^ 


AUiteration. 


6^ 


Climax. 


r 


Hyperbole. 


S' 


Allusions. 




I* Biblical. These are especially signifi- 




cant. Have pupils to look up the 




following : — 




1 5 The penitent Peter. Line 96. 




See Matt. 26:75. 




2^ Jacob of old. Line 153. Gen. 




32 : 24. 




35 Line 381. Gen. 21 : 14. 




4' Line 472. Isa. 9:6. 




5^ Line 479. Luke 23 : 34. 




6^ Line 485. 2 Kings 2:11. 




f Line 507. Ex. 19. 




8^ Line 597. Acts 28 : i - 10. 




9^ Line 821. Gen. 28: 12. 




' 10' Upharsin. Line 1044. Dan. 




5:25. 




11^ The prodigal son. Line 1063. 




Luke 15: II -32. 




12^ The foolish virgin. Line 1064. 




Matt. 25: I - 12. 




13^ Line 1095. Gen. 25: 12. 




14^ Line 1312. Mark 14:7. 




155 Line 1355. Ex. 12:21-30. 


Thk Meter o? the Poem. 


i^ Have pupils scan the poem. 


r 


^ Effect of hexameter. 



232 MANAGBMBNT AND METHODS 

2^ Effect of dactylic foot. 

3^ Note any irregularities. 

4^ Show that the form and sentiment are in 
harmony in the poem. 
These suggestions may help some teacher to better 
present this beautiful poem to his class. Let the teacher 
bear in mind that it is often impossible to test a pupil's 
appreciation of literature by any sort of examination. 
Literature is a fine art. We cannot measure the influence 
upon a young artist as he stands before a masterpiece 
and drinks in its soul-inspiring theme. But it is none 
the less true that constant contact with such things leaves 
their impress upon the soul, and leads to refined taste and 
finer appreciation. The pupils who have made a study 
of " Evangeline " will be unconsciously uplifted, not all 
to the same degree, but all to some degree ; and in days 
to come they will find a growing faith in the affection 
'' that hopes, and endures, and is patient/' and "" in the 
beauty and strength of woman's devotion/' 



XXVI. HISTORY 

The: subject of history is of comparatively recent date 
in the curriculum of the common schools, but perhaps 
no subject is more easily justified in the school course. 
It is true that much of the work is dull, and that our 
older texts attach too much importance to dates and 
battles and bloodshed, and not enough to the real life 
of the people and the development of the country. But 
these are faults of the text-book and the teacher, and not 
of the subject itself. Few subjects are more interesting 
or more inspiring or richer in practical results than his- 
tory when properly taught. 

Some of the purposes of teaching history may be 
stated : — 

I. To teach the facts of the past. It is true this has 
been overdone. Facts, the driest of facts, nothing but 
facts, have been poured into the minds of children by 
teachers whose teaching was as dry as the facts them- 
selves, and the children have become disgusted with the 
whole subject. Dickens' '' Gradgrind " might revel in the 
subject to his heart's content. No one objects to facts 
in history ; they must form the basis of all correct judg- 
ments of the past and predictions of the future ; but the 
protest is against forcing these dry facts upon the pupil 
before the pupil is mentally able to appreciate them. In 
a prominent State history used in many of the schools 
of the State, the greater part of the book is taken up 
with the history of the organization of the counties of 
the State. There are many interesting and valuable facts 
233 



234 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

given, but let me ask you, a man, a citizen, and an intel- 
ligent voter, how much do you care to burden your mind 
with the exact boundary and the local history of a large 
number of counties in your State? Unless there is a 
principle of more than local interest involved, you care 
nothing. Then why force such stuff upon school boys 
and school girls who can understand less and who care 
less than you do for it? 

2. To create a love for country and a determination 
to give one's life, if need be, for one's country. A love 
for country and a patriotism which shrinks from no 
responsibility should be the product of our schools, and 
no subject in the course can touch or quicken and de- 
velop such patriotism so well as history. By this is not 
meant mere gush and Jingo patriotism, which soars and 
soars and talks and does nothing ; but that deeper, calmer 
patriotism which recognizes that a life of virtue and labor 
and love and devotion to duty in many of the common 
walks of life is after all the highest patriotism. It should 
instil a love for many of our uncrowned heroes of com- 
mon life, who, working all about us, honestly doing their 
best and contentedly, are silently shaping the highest 
destiny of our country. 

J. To create high ideals of national conduct and good 
judgment upon national affairs. This is a most important 
purpose in a free country like ours, a republic whose 
humblest citizen has a voice in her affairs, and may be 
called upon to represent her in national or international 
councils. The intelligent study of history in the com- 
mon schools should lay a good foundation upon which 
the future citizen may build. 

4. To teach the principles underlying the facts of his- 
tory. In advance history the pupils should trace the 



HISTORY 235 

cause and effect of events. This alone will make intel- 
ligent citizenship. Each individual is what he is from 
three sources, (i) his inheritance, (2) his own exertions, 
(3) his environment. Nations owe their life and ad- 
vancement to the same forces. The problems suggested 
by an attempt to trace cause and effect logically in history 
are worthy of the best minds and give the best of mental 
discipline. To trace the life of the great nations of the 
world and their influence on the world's history, and to 
see how these nations have been influenced in their prog- 
ress by (i) the innate qualities of the race, (2) the 
constant upward progress of each generation, (3) the 
soil, climate, mineral resources, bodies of water, moun- 
tains, rivers, etc., is the highest form of history teaching. 
These things belong to a proper study of history in our 
advanced classes. 

5. To give intellectual discipline. No subject in the 
school course appeals more strongly than history to all 
the powers of the mind. Too often we teach history as 
if the memory were the only faculty of the mind re- 
quired ; but if properly taught, the memory, the imag- 
ination, the reason, the judgment, as well as the will, are 
cultivated, giving as near a symmetrical mental devel- 
opment as any subject in the school course. 

6. The cultivation of the moral nature. Nowhere is 
the child's sense of right and wrong more often exercised 
than in history. It deals with the actions of men, and 
these actions contains a moral element. We may see the 
motives which inspired these actions as well as the results 
which follow from them. We see the consecrated work 
of the good, the unselfish devotion of the patriot, the 
heroic fortitude of the martyr, and these noble actions 
lift our lives to higher planes. On the other hand, we 



236 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

see the meanness of the ignoble, the craftiness and false- 
hoods of the unprincipled, and the baseness and corrup- 
tion of the degraded, and they are repulsive to us. Our 
better nature instinctively turns away from the low, the 
groveling, and the vicious to the pure, the noble, and 
the virtuous. Standing in contrast are the noble and the 
ignoble, the generous and the selfish, the honest and the 
dishonest ; and these contrasts awaken in us an admira- 
tion for the right, and teach us to detest the evil. We 
read the deeds of heroes and patriots, and long to emulate 
them. Our mind is stimulated to higher things and to 
right conduct. Send the boy to the inspiring pages of 
history, full of life and action and noble deeds and heroic 
efforts, for moral culture, rather than to the abstract 
truths of moral philosophy. 

PRIMARY HISTORY. 

My observation has been that history is frequently 
uninteresting to pupils, and that teachers often dislike 
to teach it. There are causes for this indifference. 
Among other causes are the following which contribute 
to make history distasteful : — 

I. The manner in zvhich the pupils begin the study. 
Frequently the first introduction to history is a text-book 
too difficult for the pupil to read, and made up of the 
driest kind of facts. Often this book is a dog-eared, 
thumb-worn, broken-backed old book which has been 
used by one or more older pupils of the family. I should 
prefer boys to wear second-hand, cut-down, made-over 
clothes and girls to wear last summer's hats to taking up 
a new study in an old book. It is hard enough to begin 
with a new book, but to begin a new study with an old 
book is abominable. 



HISTORY 237 

2. The child's mind is crammed with facts and dates 
and causes and effects before its mind can grasp them or 
the significance of them. You know how dry and unin- 
teresting the local news items from a country post-office 
are, as they are given in the country newspaper. To read 
them is laborious in the extreme. If, however, you oc- 
casionally come across an item about one of your friends, 
it catches and holds your attention at once. The item 
may be nothing more nor less than that Tom Jones' cow 
broke her leg and had to be killed. But Tom Jones was 
your boyhood friend. Whatever concerns him concerns 
you, and this one item about your friend will add interest 
to a whole column of kindred items. 

J. The teacher lias no definite object in view in the 
recitation, and does not have the details of the lesson in 
mind. Nothing destroys the interest of the class quicker 
than this hazy, indefinite knowledge of the lesson on the 
part of the teacher. The teacher should have a clear 
outline of the topics to be presented in the lesson, and 
know the details of these topics and their relation to 
other topics before presented, as well as those to follow 
in subsequent lessons. The teacher is to know the lesson 
until he needs no text-book. When he is full of the sub- 
ject, he is ready with pertinent questions, and the recita- 
tion is full of life and interest. When the teacher gets 
near his margin of knowledge in the history recitation, 
as in other subjects, he begins to hesitate and stammer, 
and to ask cloudy questions, and to run off at a tangent 
from the subject. Pupils intuitively know it, and inter- 
est wanes. 

4. Teachers do not revieiv often enough. Pupils 
should review the facts of history frequently. Impres- 
sions must be made over and over again upon the minds 



238 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

of the pupils if they are to remain permanently. After 
pupils have taken up the text-book and have completed 
an administration, they should be able to recall quickly 
and accurately the principal events of that administration, 
and to give something definite about each event. They 
should have a bird's-eye view of each administration, and 
be able to give some of the details of each event. Each 
of these topics will form a nucleus around which may 
be grouped a number of facts of history learned in later 
life. 

5 Teachers too often recite the history lesson. Noth- 
ing is more deadening than the constant talk of the 
teacher in the history class. He must, it is true, be famil- 
iar with every detail of the lesson, not for the purpose of 
telling the class about it, but to guide and direct the pupils 
in their discussions. His questions should be to the 
point, and such as test the pupils' knowledge of the sub- 
ject as well as to stimulate thought and to suggest further 
study. It is a wholesale waste of time and energy to tell 
the story of the history lesson to the class until their 
minds are placed in a receptive attitude. The teacher's 
enthusiasm must be so great and so genuine that it is 
contagious with the children. This enthusiasm must 
arouse curiosity and a desire to know on the part of the 
pupil, until they hvmger for more and are willing to read 
and listen to learn more. Then to impress the work more 
firmly, the pupils and not the teacher are to recite it. 

If the things named above cause lack of interest in 
teaching history, our endeavor should be to avoid them. 
What, then, should be the primary or elementary work 
in United States history? 

I. The work for the first tzvo years at least should be 
oral. If the children begin the study of history by using 



HISTORY 239 

a text-book, they are apt to commit the words of the text 
only. The historical fact escapes them in their effort 
to get the words. If the work is presented orally, the 
pupils will be trained to remember the facts and repro- 
duce them in their own language. A boy does not fail 
to understand the story of an accident on the playground 
or in town if he listens to some one relate it. He may 
warp the truth and swell the details, but he has no trouble 
in relating the story itself. So it is with oral work in 
history. The written form of the language is eliminated, 
and the child is concerned with the facts only. When 
the pupil again relates the facts, then will come the time 
for pruning. 

2. The study of history should begin with biography. 
The pupils are interested in individuals long before they 
are in events. Select twenty-five great names from Amer- 
ican history, as Columbus. DeSoto, Ponce de Leon, La- 
Salle, John Smith, Miles Standish, Nathaniel Bacon, 
George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Daniel Boone, 
David Crockett, Sam Houston, Andrew Jackson, John 
C. Fremont, Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, U. S. 
Grant, Peter Cooper, John Jacob Astor, George Peabody, 
Captain Eads, Thomas A. Edison, and others. Prepare 
yourself on the lives of these men. Let me emphasize 
the words, prepare yourself. Here lies the secret. Make 
a study of these men. Get the incidents of their lives at 
your tongue's end. The material is plentiful. Books and 
educational journals and magazines are all about you, 
but you must gather and organize and master it. You 
cannot use it in dry, set statements, nor rely for material 
upon what you remember from carrying an advance class 
over the work. 

The fact that many teachers in their history work in 



240 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

the primary grades rely upon the material they may hap- 
pen to remember from having an advance class in the 
subject, accounts for the dulness of the study. It is not 
expected that you be prince of story tellers. If you were, 
you would not be apt to be teaching at forty dollars per 
month ; but you can grow along that line. Tell the story 
of these men's lives with vim and enthusiasm. If ninety 
per cent, of your pupils do not listen and become inter- 
ested and follow you carefully, you are to blame. If you 
fail, try it over again. Read up, study up, think out, 
plan your story, and at last you will gain the power 
of interesting the pupils. Your own enthusiasm will 
count for much. Enthusiasm is contagious, and an 
epidemic of enthusiasm is good for both teacher and 
pupils, especially in primary history. 

Review and talk about these from day to day. Have 
the pupils tell you about these men. Be patient, be in- 
terested yourself, and you will be surprised how much the 
pupils will remember and how interested they will be- 
come. Have them write the stories for language work, 
and correct, revise, prune, and make clear any points 
they have misunderstood. 

J. Then select tzventy-Uve great events in United 
States history, and prepare them as thoroughly as the 
biographies. Study and plan so you can present these 
events to the class in the best possible manner. Have 
the details well in mind. Have them well arranged, 
and relate these events to your class just as you would 
describe to them a new game or the story of a school 
picnic. Be natural in your manner, speak in conversa- 
tional tones, and the pupils will listen and remember. 
Have them get other information and then relate the 
story to you again. See how their eyes sparkle and how 



HISTORY 241 

their tongue is loosened as they vie with one another in 
telHng the story. Train them to tell it well. What one 
forgets another will think of. Then have them write the 
story in good correct English. It will be a good basis 
for their language work. You will now find inaccuracies 
cropping out. Correct these, and train your class to 
notice them. 

The above will lay the basis for two years' oral work 
in history before the pupils take up a text-book. They 
will be familiar with several of the famous men and 
events — these will be their old friends, and when later 
they meet them in using the text-book these names will 
illumine pages of text which otherwise would be dry and 
uninteresting, as the item concerning your friend's cow 
gave interest to a page of locals. 

The class is then well prepared for a primary text- 
book in history. Nothing is a better index of improve- 
ment in our schools than to note the progress made in 
our text-books in the last two decades. There are a num- 
ber of good text-books on the market now in primary his- 
tory suitable for pupils beginning the use of a book. Make 
your choice carefully, and let the pupils each be supplied 
with a book. Teach them to study subjects rather than 
pages, and to arrange the headings or topics under the 
subjects. These topics are the framework which should be 
clothed in words. The first preparation on the part of the 
teacher is to master the text. Get the author's outline in 
mind, even to the details. This is no great task if an out- 
line is made, and it is essential to the best teaching. Re- 
member it is not the teacher's place to recite the history 
lesson, but the pupil's. The teacher who is a skilful list- 
ener is a great inspiration to a history class. Careful at- 
tention to the child's story and an appreciation on the part 

t6 



242 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

of the teacher will get interest and best effort from the 
pupil. By this means the pupil is led to think the story 
as a connected whole, and will grow in power of both 
thought and expression. 

Before leaving a subject, the pupil should have in 
mind a definite outline, more or less complete, according 
to his age and mental ability, of the subject as the author 
treats it. These topics should be kept in mind, forming a 
nucleus around which he may ever after group other facts 
and information upon the same topic. By such associ- 
ations alone can we make permanent mental accumula- 
tions of historic facts. 

ADVANCED HISTORY. 

If pupils have been properly introduced to history, 
they should love it, and now they are ready for a deeper 
study of the subject and for a more advanced text-book. 
Such a text may deal more with cause and effect, but 
even here there is danger of dry facts and generalizations 
which are above the mental grasp of the pupils. There 
has been much theorizing of late upon methods of teach- 
ing history, and no doubt much good has resulted from 
it. Our histories have been too long a record of warfare 
and battle, and too little of the real life of the people. The 
blood-and-thunder side has overshadowed all else. We 
are now swinging away from that extreme, and it may be 
a decade or two will carry us to the other extreme. Many 
of our writers are dry and prosy in their descriptions of 
common life, and the boy passes through a stage of de- 
velopment when the blood-and-thunder side appeals to 
him and nothing else will. The theory now advocated by 
prominent educators, a number of them from normal 
schools, that the child's history work should trace the 



HISTORY 243 

growth of civilization, has much truth in it, but it may 
be easily overdone unless the children are in skilled 
hands and under almost ideal conditions. There is lit- 
tle more reason for beginning the history with primi- 
tive life than that the child should actually live as the 
primitive man did. The child's heritage of the past 
makes it possible to begin life with the home sur- 
roundings and comforts of civilization, and it is 
as hard for the child to imagine the primitive life as 
the more complex life of the present. Recently I heard 
a learned man advocating that we should begin the study 
of history in our public schools with the history of Eng- 
land instead of the United States. It was impossible, 
said he, to understand the history of our own country 
until we knew the history of the mother country. Even 
under the charm of his eloquence, one could not help but 
ask in his own mind, if it were possible to understand the 
history of the mother country without knowing the his- 
tory of the grand-mother country, etc. Then the story 
of a small boy who was a great doubter came to mind. 
His teacher showed him the letter A, and asked him what 
it was. The boy said promptly, " I don't know." The 
teacher told him it was A. The boy asked at once, 
*' How do you know ? " The teacher said that when he 
was a boy his teacher told him it was A. " Well, how did 
he know ? " asked the boy. The teacher then explained 
that his teacher's teacher said it was A. The boy asked 
again, *' How did he know? "and so on until it had been 
traced through a number of generations. At last to sat- 
isfy the boy, the teacher told him the man who first made 
it said it was A. '' Well'' replied the boy, '' how do you 
know hut what he lied about it? " Some of us are much 
like the boy when it comes to history study. 



244 MANAGBMBNT AND METHODS 

Master Some Good Text. — Extremes are to be 
avoided, but after the text is selected, the thing 
for the pupil to do is to master it. There has 
been a reaction of late against text-book work. Many 
teachers, loud in their clamor to throw the texts out 
of the window, would know and understand far more 
history had they really studied carefully and mastered 
one good text. Our authors are liable to gross errors, 
but mastering a text does not mean swallowing every- 
thing the author says, but it does mean knowing zvhat he 
says. After the class knows accurately what the author 
says, and understands the author's language, then comes 
the time for further investigation and agreement with or 
dissent from his views. This does not mean lifeless cram 
of text-book, but thoughtful mastery of the author's 
thought and language. Enliven it with questions and 
discussions, but see that, above all, the pupils know 
what he says, and then translate, as it were, into their 
own language and experience. Then and then only do 
they understand it. 

The pupil too often studies history as if it were some- 
thing away off, and had no connection with anything 
about him. It should be in fact " his-story," the author's 
story of what has happened and why it happened as it 
did. When the pupils can call it up face to face, and 
read it as a narrative of what has happened, they will 
soon be able to get an outline view of history from the 
author's standpoint, and from this view and from the 
topics here learned they can ever after add to, expand, 
and fasten new knowledge. It is a fundamental law of 
mind that we interpret all new knowledge by the old, and 
these topics are the hooks upon which the new knowledge 
may be readily assorted and hung. 



HISTORY 245 

Read Other Texts. — It is not meant to imply that 
pupils should study one text-book on history and only 
one. Improved methods may be good. Many devices 
are excellent for getting interest in the history class, 
but nothing will take the place of a thorough prepa- 
ration of the lesson from day to day, and a constant 
review and fastening of the facts in mind according 
to some systematic plan — a plan which will give the 
pupil a bird's-eye view of the subject with the proper 
co-ordination of topics. The teacher who fails to give 
his history class that view, fails in teaching history, 
however much he may follow new and improved methods. 

Pupils should be taught early how to use other au- 
thors intelligently. Half our pupils and many of our 
teachers do not know the value of an index. Some weeks 
ago a teacher of prominence, after looking in vain for 
a topic in a work on civics, asked me if I remembered 
where the author treated of the point in question. In two 
minutes I had turned to the index and then to the page. 
Pointing to the topic, I gave him the book as he ex- 
claimed, " I never thought about going to the index." 
So it often is with our pupils. Teach them to make 
use of the index and to find the topic they are looking 
up. If the topic is not given exactly as they have found 
it stated in their own text, let them learn to use the good 
common sense method, and look under another title for 
what is practically the same subject. It is deplorable that 
so many pupils and teachers are lost and bewildered when 
in a library. No study is better than history to train 
pupils to an intelligent use of books other than their 
texts. They must be taught to get the information they 
want with the least possible outlay of time and effort, 



246 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

and to be able to find what they want when they have the 
books before them. 

The Cross-section Viezv of History. — There is what 
may be termed the cross-section or time viezv of his- 
tory and the longitudinal or subject viezv. The first 
is usually the one used in our school histories, and 
for an introductory view it is perhaps the better. The 
story of our country is presented as it happened, as 
a narration in chronological order. A colony, as Vir- 
ginia, is taken up and its history traced, naming the events 
largely in the order in which they occurred. In the Revo- 
lutionary War we study the events of 1776, 1777, 1778, 
etc., each year in succession to the close of the war. 
When we come to the National Period, we study the 
events of Washington's administrations, then John 
Adams's, then Jefferson's, and so on. The principal asso- 
ciation here is a time or administration association. The 
events are grouped by years or administrations. Some 
teachers have severely criticized such grouping, but it 
is not wholly bad. No year's study of history ever did 
me more good than one when my class were required to 
group the events by administrations, and to be able to 
name at any time the events during each administration. 
It may be that time is wasted on learning dates. Some 
teachers go to extremes on this line, but there is another 
extreme no less pernicious, and that is in knowing some- 
thing of an event and being utterly unable to locate it 
in time or place. A high school pupil completing United 
States history could tell me reasonably well the story of 
the Whisky Rebellion, but did not remember when it 
occurred, whether it was Washington or Cleveland who 
called out the militia, or whether he sent them to Florida, 
Pennsylvania, or California. Now a proper understand- 



HISTORY 247 

ing of the Whisky Rebellion would include the following 
points : — 

1. When it occurred. 

2. Where it occurred. 

3. Why it occurred. 

4. What was the constitutional authority for the reve- 
nue law ? 

5. What authority had the President to call out the 
troops ? 

6. What were the results at the time ? 

7. What were the later results of Washington's prece- 
dent? 

The event which is remembered without connection 
in time or place is apt to be of little value from the 
standpoint of history. 

The Longitudinal Viezv of History. — This is in 
the later study of history the proper method of study. 
In this you do not study by cross section, but by sub- 
ject. The time sequence is not limited to arbitrary 
periods, as by administrations, but a subject is traced 
through our history. Cause and effect are made more 
prominent than time. To illustrate by example, suppose 
we are investigating the subject of Slavery in the United 
States, a subject rich in its results as a history study and 
appropriate for the advanced high school class. The out- 
line should stand in the teacher's mind something as fol- 
lows; then in addition to having reference works and a 
clear understanding of the subject himself, the teacher 
should have an earnest desire to give the class a clear 
view of the subject with all its ramifications into our 
social, economical, and political life. 
i^ Slavery. 

l^ Origin of slavery in the world. 



248 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

2^ Good and bad influences of slavery. 
3^ Racial slavery and slavery of the weak. 
4^ Why the negro made a good slave. 
5^ Slavery in Greece, 
i^ Kind. 

2^ Six bases of Grecian slavery. 
3^ Number of slaves. 
4^ Treatment of the slaves. 
6^ Slavery in Rome. 
1 3 Kind 

2^ Number of slaves. 
3^ Treatment of the slaves. 
4^ Four ways by which the slaves could become 
free. 
7^ Slavery in other countries of Europe. 
8- Slavery in the United States. 
i^ Introduced in 1619. 
I* How introduced. 

2* Spread to every English colony — took 
firm root in the South and died 
out in the North because of — 
i^ Climate. 
2^ Industries. 

3^ Character of early colonists. 
4^ Invention of the cotton gin, spin- 
ning jenny, and power loom. 
3* Emancipation in the Northern colonies. 
i« When. 

2^ How — name for each colony. 
2^ The Negro Plot, 1741. 
3^ Ordinance of 1787. 

I* When first proposed. 



HISTORY 249 

2* Origin of this public domain and its 
influence on making a Union pos- 
sible. 
3* By whom prepared. 
4* Authority. 
5* Provisions. 
4^ Slavery compromises of the Constitution. 
I* The Connecticut Compromise. 
I** By v^hom introduced. 
2^ Give history of it. 
2* The Apportionment Compromise, 
i^ Precedent for. 
2^ Provisions. 

I® For representation and di- 
rect taxes. 
2^ Importation of slaves. 
3® Duty on imported slaves. 
3^ To whom advantageous and 
why? 
5^ The^ Fugitive Slave Law of 1793. 
I* Provisions and penalties. 
2* How evaded. 

3* Northern merchants did as much or 
more to sustain slavery as Southern 
planters. 
6^ Invention of the cotton gin, 1793. 
I* The inventor. 
2* Why needed. 
3* Results. 

i^ On the production of cotton. 
2' On the price of land. 
3^ On the settlement of the Gulf 
States. 



250 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

4^ On the demand for Negro slaves. 
5^ On building factories. 
6^ On cotton as an article of cloth- 
ing. 
7^ On commerce. 
8^ On the hope for gradual eman- 
cipation. 
7^ The exportation of slaves forbidden, 1794. 
8^ The foreign slave trade restricted, 1800. 
9^ The importation of slaves forbidden, 1807. 
10^ Additional measures for restricting impor- 
tation of slaves. 
11^ Slave trade made piracy and punishable by 

death, 1817. 
12^ The Missouri Compromise, 1820-21. 
I* The question at issue. 
2* Tallmadge's amendment. 
3* Clay's opposition. 
4* Missouri and Maine united in one bill 

in the Senate. 
5* The Missouri Compromise proper 
introduced by Senator Jesse B. 
Thomas of Illinois. 
6* The objectionable clause in Missouri's 

constitution. 
7* Recommendations of the Committee 

of Thirty. 
8* Missouri's pledge. 
9* Results. 

10'* The views of leading statesmen on the 
compromise. 
13^ Publication of the Liberator, 183 1. 
14^ New England Anti-Slavery Society, 1832. 



HISTORY -''' 

ic» American Abolition Society. 

i63 Annexation of Texas and the Mexican War, 

1845. 

I* History of Texas previous to annexa- 
tion. 
2^ Calhoun's influence as Secretary ot 

State on annexation. 
3^ Opinions of Jackson, Van Buren, and 

Clay on annexation. 
4^ Calhoun's revenge on Van Buren and 
the nomination of Polk the expan- 
sionist. 
c* Cause of the war. 

i5 Desire for new territory, espe- 
cially slave territory. 
2' Texas colonized by Americans 
who were loyal to the United 
States and desired annexation. 
f Disputed boundary of Texas. 
173 The Wilmot Proviso, 1846. 
I* David Wilmot. 
2* Occasion for the proviso. 
3* Provisions. 
4^ Results. 
18^ The Free Soil Party, 1845. 
I* The platform. 
2* Candidates. 
3* Results. 
19^ Compromise of 1850. 

I* Cause of the agitation, 
i^ Calhoun's circular. 
2^ Virginia's resolution. 
35 Free State recommendation. 



252 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

4^ California's Free State Petition. 
2* President Taylor's stand. 
3* Clay's Omnibus Bill. 



I^ 


How named. 


2^ 


The five provisions. 


3^ 


Clay's great speech. 


A' 


Webster's seventh of March 




speech. 


S' 


Calhoun's last speech and his 




four demands of the South. 


6' 


Foote's resolution. 




I® Debate upon it. 




2« The Committee of Thirteen 




and their seven recom- 




mendations. 


r 


The bills must be passed sepa- 




rately or not at all, and why? 


8^ 


The Fugitive Slave Law. 




I® Its provisions. 




2« Why objectionable. 




f Results. 




i^ Personal liberty laws. 




Give the provisions 




of these laws in the 




different States. 




2^ Daring rescues. 




3^ Indignation of the 




North. 


20=^ Publication of " Uncle Tom's Cabin," 1852. 


I* Biography of Mrs. Stowe. 



2* Character of the book. 

3* Enormous sale. 

4* Influence on slavery. 



HISTORY 253 

21^ Kansas-Nebraska Bill, 1854. 
I* Authors. 

2* Reasons for introducing. 
3* Four results. 
22^ Republican Party organized, 1856. 
I* Why. 

2* Source of influence and leaders. 
3'^ Platform provisions. 
4* Candidates. 
23^ Dred Scott Decision, 1857. 
I* Who was Scott? 
2* Cause of complaint and the question at 

issue. 
3* The decision. 

i^ Majority and minority reports. 
2^ Influence on the different sec- 
tions. 
3^ Character of the judges. 
4^ This decision in time of war be- 
came the key to emancipation. 
24^ HelpeV's " Impending Crisis." 
I* The author. 

2* His principles and method of treat- 
ment. 
3* Its influence in the campaign of i860. 
25^ Lincoln-Douglas debates, 1858. 
I* Party positions. 
2* The challenge and arrangements for 

debates. 
3* Contrast between Douglas and Lin- 
coln. 
4* Douglas's questions and Lincoln's re- 
plies. 



254 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

5* Lincoln's questions and Douglas's re- 
plies. 

6* Lincoln's clinching argument against 
police control of slavery. 

7* Results, local and national. 
26^ John Brown's raid. 

I* Brown's previous career. 

2* His plans, how carried out. 

3* Results, personal and national. 
2y^ Campaign of i860. 

I* Split of the Democratic Party. 

2* Principles of the four different plat- 
forms. 

3* Election of Lincoln and results. 
28^ Beginnings of secession. 

I* Order of secession. 

2* How other States were influenced to 
follow South Carolina. 

3* Methods of conventions. 

4* Floyd as Secretary of War. 

5^ Resignation of United States senators. 

6* Possession of forts and arsenals. 

7* Buchanan's policy. 

8* Dix's famous order and firm stand. 

9* Thousands of people on each side were 
reluctantly forced to take sides. 
2(f Crittenden's compromise. 

I* Provisions. 

2* Two other compromises, provisions 
and history. 
30^ Inauguration of Lincoln. 

I* His quiet but firm stand. 

2* Summarize his inaugural address. 



HISTORY 255 

31^ Civil War measures. 

i"^ Final effort for peaceable disunion. 

2* Military leagues. 

3* West Virginia. 

4^ Lincoln's diplomacy is shown in his 

first call for soldiers. 
5"* Contraband of war and confiscation of 

property. 
6* Lincoln's attitude toward emancipa- 
tion as shown — 
i^ In his Greeley letters. 
2^ In reversing Freemont's deci- 
sion. 
7* Attitude of Congress toward slavery. 
8* Emancipation Proclamation. Note 
carefully what it did and what it 
did not do. 
9* The second inauguration. 
10* The Thirteenth Amendment, 1865. 
II* The Fourteenth Amendment, 1868. 
12* The Fifteenth Amendment, 1870. 

The outline opens up, should we want to carry it 
farther, the results of the war — the cost in money, the 
cost in men. Scarcely a family North or South but lost 
of its best blood. The enormous cost of the war gave 
rise to our banking system, and laid the foundation for 
many of our gigantic business enterprises of the last 
quarter of a century. Carpet-bag rule in the South, the 
greatest curse of all, followed, in which millions of funds 
were squandered and nothing to show for it. The rapid 
elevation of the negro from slavery to citizenship without 
any educational qualifications shows to what extremes 
wise men may go in times of passion and excitement. 



256 MANAGBMBNT AND METHODS 

The causes of the Civil War, of which slavery was one 
rooted deep in the past, give us many of the gravest prob- 
lems of the present. The advance class should catch the 
spirit of subject study in history, for any subject investi- 
gated soon discovers new and deeper relations to the 
student. 

Outlines in the Study of History. — In the preced- 
ing pages outlines have been spoken of. It is very 
important for the class to get a clear outline of the 
subject, and to hold the main points of the outline in 
mind. It is well, also, for the pupil to be able to stand 
and tell what he knows of a topic in clear, definite lan- 
guage. It cultivates self-possession and the power to 
think on one's feet. He should do this without the aid 
of leading questions, and it should be told in his own 
language. If he quotes the language of the book, the 
teacher must make sure that he understands it thoroughly. 
Just now comes to mind a quotation from Ridpath's 
School History, learned years ago. However, our teacher 
talked to us about its meaning until we understood it. 
Then the language was worthy to be remembered. 
Speaking of the results of the French and Indian War. 
he said : " By this conflict it was decided that the decay- 
ing institutions of the Middle Ages should not prevail 
in America, and that the powerful language, just laws, 
and priceless liberties of the English race should be 
planted forever in the vast domain of the New World." 

There are many ready-made history outlines on the 
market. Many of them are good, and are useful to the 
teacher as a help or guide, but it is a great mistake to 
adopt one outright. In this, as in everything else, the 
teacher may adapt but not adopt. The outline given 
above on slavery in the United States suits me with a 



HISTORY 257 

good strong class of high school students, because I 
worked it out and planned it and have used it twice with 
such a class. To use it again I should recast it and re- 
vise it. If the class is not strong many points would be 
omitted. If our reference library is not adequate that, 
too, would modify it. It may be helpful to you as a stu- 
dent, but to be helpful to you as a teacher you must work 
it over and plan it to suit you. You must assimilate it, 
make it a part of yourself, and then use it. You can- 
not use it to any advantage ready-made. 

Relation of History and Geography. — Let me make 
a plea for a combination of history and geography 
in a measure in advanced classes. There is a close 
inter-relation in these subjects often overlooked but 
of great importance. Avoiding the practice of push- 
ing the philosophy of history down before pupils are ma- 
ture enough to grasp it, there are still some broad prin- 
ciples back of history which, if grasped and under- 
stood by the teacher, will give coloring or perhaps it 
might be said character, to all his teaching of history. 
Some of these are :-^ 

1. That history is a continuity, a continuous stream, 
the continually growing life of man. 

2. That this continually enlarging life of man is con- 
served or stored up for the use of future generations in 
man's institutional life — the family, the church, the state, 
the school, the various business enterprises. 

3. That there is a close relation between history and 
geography, and that all good teaching makes constant 
reference to and use of geography. 

This last principle is especially important. 
What agencies determine the course of history ? Why 
does history in one country mature rapidly, while in 

17 



258 MANAGHMBNT AND METHODS 

another it moves very slowly? What causes states and 
empires and cities to rise, flourish, decay, and fall? The 
stream of history and civilization is like a river, it fol- 
lows the path of least resistance. High up in Minnesota 
the Father of Waters has its source, and from a trifling 
rivulet easily stepped across it winds its tortuous course 
three thousand miles to the Gulf of Mexico. Its current 
constantly augmented by tributaries from the east and 
the west, grows stronger and stronger and more and more 
difficult to turn into new channels. Here it leaps as a 
water-fall, there it whirls in an eddy, and yonder it 
glides in a glossy sheet. The winding of the stream, 
the whirlpools, the eddies, and the smooth-gliding, glossy 
sheet are caused by the rocks and soil, the bluffs and 
slopes, and obstructions along its banks and bed. Its 
character is determined by its physical environment. 

The stream of history had its rise back in the warm 
and fertile valleys of the Nile and the Euphrates. It 
moved around the Mediterranean, shifted across north- 
western Europe, crossed the Atlantic, and is marching 
rapidly toward the Pacific slope. What causes the 
change in the course of this river of human life and ac- 
tivity? Why did it start westward instead of eastward? 
Why did it not move directly north or south? The 
answer here is practically the same as with the Missis- 
sippi — physical environment. 

1. Mountains, rivers, deserts, slopes, plants, animals, 
climate, mineral products, — all these and many others 
have influenced man, determining where he should settle, 
what his occupation should be, in what direction he 
should migrate when he sought a new home, and other 
vital questions of his life. 

2. The early homes of civilization were along the 



HISTORY 259 

Nile and the Euphrates. The soil was immensely fertile. 
The labor of one man is estimated to have fed a hun- 
dred persons. Here in the warmer parts of the tem- 
perate zone fruits grew in abundance and wheat and 
barley were native products. Man found it easy to 
get a start in developing material, military, and artistic 
surroundings. 

3. As these two centers of civilization became densely 
populated from such favored surroundings, civilization 
moved westward because the Mediterranean invited while 
the Persian and Arabian deserts and the Himalayan crags 
frowned upon an/ effort to move eastward. Thus Phoe- 
nicia, Asia Minor, Greece, and powerful Rome became 
each in turn the center of human activity, and for two 
thousand years the hub of civilization was on the borders 
of the Mediterranean. 

4. For over a thousand years after the fall of Rome 
the center of activity was in the rich, fertile valleys of 
Western Europe. Then Columbus added a New and 
empty world to th^ Old. "America is another word for 
opportunity," says Emerson, and it was not long after 
its discovery, measured in the age of nations, until with 
new and improved methods of navigation the seat of 
civilization was transferred to America. 

If we can lead pupils to see these forces back of his- 
tory, it means much to them. Such principles are preg- 
nant with thought, and concrete examples are readily 
found. Mountains are barriers and often separate dis- 
tinct kinds of civilization. Notice how the Himalayas 
divide the civilization of China from that of India. Note 
the fruitless attempts to hold France and Spain as one 
nation because the Pyrenees forbid. Russia has, on the 
other hand, spread all over Northern Europe and Asia 



260 MANAGBMBNT AND METHODS 

because of a continuous broad, fertile plain. The wisest 
statesmen of Washington's time doubted the possibility 
of our country ever reaching successfully beyond the 
Appalachian Mountains. The railroad, the steamboat, 
the telegraph, and the telephone have made it possible 
to unite our great and broad country, varying as it 
does in soil, climate, and resources ; and even with these 
modern methods of annihilating space we must not over- 
look the fact that ours was practically an empty land to 
be filled with a people of kindred tastes. Had the Mis- 
sissippi Valley been the seat of a civilization with different 
ideas and tastes incompatible with our^, the results might 
have been different. 

We thus see that the surface of a country affects its 
civilization, and the soil affects it almost as much. Where 
the soil is rich, the population is apt to be dense, and 
the leading occupation agriculture. If the soil is poor, 
unless there be mineral resources, the population will be 
sparse and often nomadic. When we consider the rich- 
ness and vastness and diversity of our domain, the future 
of our country is bright. What we need is skill and 
will to develop it. We may also predict with much as- 
surance where the denser population will be. Those 
who are familiar with the geography of the country, 
even after making due allowance for rich undeveloped 
mineral resources of the highland section, must see that 
the Mississippi Valley and the Gulf region must in time 
become the home of a large portion of the population 
of the nation. 

The rich river valleys of the earth, having been the 
seat of dense populations, have been also the center of 
many great military movements. To secure permanently 
the mouth of a river controls the commerce of the river. 



HISTORY 261 

Three times has the possession of the Mississippi been a 
question of national or international importance. The 
bone of contention, so far as the colonies were concerned, 
in the French and Indian War was the possession of 
the Mississippi or its tributaries. Read the record of 
events leading to the purchase of Louisiana. Upon our 
part it was the demand of the people of the Mississippi 
Valley for an outlet to the Gulf. In the Civil War the 
opening of the Mississippi was one of the four definite 
plans of the Union forces. 

From the consideration of the influence of the soil 
upon history and civilization it is but a step to a con- 
sideration of mineral products beneath the surface. 
Gold, silver, iron, lead, coal, and gas have had a power- 
ful influence upon the course of history. The last two 
centuries have increased the influence of these greatly, 
perhaps more than all other centuries combined. The 
discovery of coal and iron in the northwest of England 
about a century ago has shifted the population to that 
portion of the island. This has made England one of 
the greatest manufacturing countries of the world, and 
in numerous ways has contributed to the social, political, 
religious, and industrial life of the people. The rich 
gold and diamond mines of South Africa were the cause 
of the Boer War. Spain's whole career in America was 
devoted to securing all the gold she could get. The value 
of Alaskan gold fields threatened to involve us in se- 
rious boundary disputes with Great Britain. 

Thus we see that in hundreds of ways the stream of 
history has been influenced by physical environment, and 
we as teachers should bind history and geography to- 
gether by constant reference from one to the other until 
they become a unit in the child's mind. 



262 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

A FEW DEVICES. 

1. A helpful outline for the study of a battle is as 

follows : — 
(i) When. 

(2) Where. 

(3) Leaders. 

(4) Incidents. 

(5) Results. 

This will include the essential things which should 
be known about a battle, and unless most of these facts 
may be found, the battle is apt to be of very little im- 
portance. 

2. Propose such questions as the following, and allow 
pupils to discuss them freely, giving reasons for their 
belief, and later it may be left to the vote of the class : — 

(i) Excepting Washington, who was the greatest 
general in the Revolutionary War? 

(2) Who was the greatest general in the war of 18 12 ? 

(3) Who was the greatest Union General in the 
Civil War? 

(4) Who was the greatest Confederate general? 

(5) Which was the greater invention, the cotton gin 
or the steamboat? The sewing-machine or the mowing- 
machine? The telephone or the telegraph? 

Numerous questions of this kind may be proposed. 
Their chief value lies in the argument given in support 
of their position. Discourage all personal prejudice as 
far as possible. 

3. Arrange a Hall of Fame. Place in it the three 
greatest English discoverers or explorers, the three great- 
est French, the three greatest Spanish. Let pupils sup- 
port their candidate by argument, giving reasons why 
he is entitled to a place in the Hall of Fame. Extend 



HISTORY 263 

to other things, as statesmen, generals, inventors, 
poets, etc. 

4. Let pupils choose sides and debate questions per- 
taining to history. Avoid partisanship. Classes have 
debated the tariff question in schools where political 
parties were close, without offense or hard feeling. No 
one can claim to be properly educated until he can listen 
calmly to honest opposition to his opinions, when the 
opposition is properly expressed. 

5. Make a list of historic quotations, as, " Don't give 
up the ship," *' Millions for defense, but not a cent for 
tribute," " We have met the enemy, and they are ours," 
" I'll try, sir," and half a hundred more, and have 
pupils tell when, by whom, and upon what occasion 
each was said. 

6. Write upon the board cardinal dates, such as 
.1492, 1541, 1565, 1607, 1620, etc., and have pupils tell why 
important by naming a great event of that year. This 
is an excellent way to impress important dates on the 
memory. 

7. Study the great American inventions and the lives 
of the inventors. Trace the results, social, political, and 
economical, upon the lives of the people. Enumerate 
the results of the invention of the cotton-gin, the tele- 
graph, the mowing-machine, the improved printing press, 
etc. Suppose all electrical power should suddenly stop, 
what would be the result on the world? Suppose rail- 
roads were all wiped out of existence, how would it 
change the life of the people? Suppose all mowing- 
machines and sewing-machines were suddenly destroyed, 
what would the results be? Nothing is better to lead 
to an understanding of the importance of our great 



264 MANAGBMBNT AND METHODS 

modern inventions than to see how quickly they become 
inseparably connected with our civilization. 

8. Maps are among the most useful devices for teach- 
ing history. Pupils should have an outline map for the 
Colonial period, another for the Revolutionary period, 
another for the National period, and a special one for 
the war of 1812, the Mexican War, and the Civil War; 
and as places and events are named, locate them on 
the map by number or some similar device. On their 
war map have them trace each campaign and locate each 
battle studied. Then supplement this war map by maps 
of each of the great battles fought, showing the move- 
ments of the opposing forces. In no other way can 
pupils get so correct a view of the movements and fasten 
in mind the facts which should be known as by tracing 
them on the map. Who does not understand General 
Scott's invasion of Mexico far better after having mapped 
his campaign, and it might be asked who ever understood 
it properly until he did trace it on the map? These maps 
may be made artistic as well as interesting and valuable. 
The pupils should be able at any time to sketch briefly 
and quickly upon the blackboard or paper any campaign 
they have studied. 

9. Give attention to noted days in history. Upon the 
anniversary of great events call the attention of the pu- 
pils in advance to the coming day, and have them to be 
prepared upon the event and its significance. It may be 
used as an opening exercise, or if the whole history pe- 
riod be devoted to that one event and its importance im- 
pressed on the mind of the class, it is time well spent. 

10. Frequently assign review topics miscellaneously 
and have a written recitation. Pupils should be trained 
to write accurately and readily upon the board or on 



HISTORY 265 

paper, using any topic previously studied. Review con- 
stantly. 

II. Teach pupils to summarize the facts learned. Af- 
ter they have studied the different colonies, they should 
summarize the kinds of colonial governments. 

( 1 ) The Royal — governed by a representative of 
the king. 

(2) The Charter — governed under a charter or 
constitution granted by the king. 

(3) Proprietary — governed by the man who owned 
the land. In the same way after they have studied the 
French and Indian War, they should make a summary 
something like the following: — 

a. The treaty of Paris. 

{a) England received from France Canada, ex- 
cept some small islands near Newfoundland, 
and all territory east of the Mississippi except 
the territory of New Orleans. 
{h) France ceded to Spain New Orleans and all 

her possessions west of the Mississippi. 
{c) Spain ceded Florida to England in return 
for Havana. 
h. It cost the colonies eleven million dollars and 
thirty thousand men. 

c. It engendered strife between the colonies and the 
mother country. 

d. It bound the colonies together. 

e. It trained soldiers for the Revolutionary War. 

/. It gave England a vast territory in the New World, 
which, added to what she already had, proved too great 
for the short-sighted colonial policy of George III and 
his thick-headed ministers. 

g. During the war England allowed the colonies a 



266 MANAGBMBNT AND METHODS 

freedom in trade which she later tried to restrict, but 
was resisted by the colonies. 

12. Teach pupils to associate events together in time. 
For example, take the year 1619. 

(i) The first House of Burgesses in Virginia. 

(2) The importation of women into Virginia. 

(3) The introduction of slavery. 

13. It is a good test of discrimination to call upon 
pupils to name — 

( 1 ) The most important thing in the lesson. 

(2) The least important. 

(3) The saddest. 

(4) The bravest. 

(5) The most treacherous, etc. 

14. Lead pupils to see how life is modified by each 
onward step in civilization. The degree of civilization 
is indicated by the way the people partake of food. No- 
tice, for illustration, the Indians seated on the ground 
about one vessel from which all eat promiscuously ; the 
Mexicans with rough boards for tables and course man- 
ners ; the people of the most civilized countries with 
convenient and ornamental table-ware, table-cloths, nap- 
kins, etc. Then have them note that these are prod- 
ucts of civilization, and have them point out others, such 
as the treatment of prisoners, freedom of thought and 
action, inventions, etc. 

15. Have one pupil describe some historic character 
or some battle or campaign without naming it, and let 
the others give the name. 

16. In your advanced history class investigate as 
fully as your library and the ability of your class will 



HISTORY 267 

permit, according to the longitudinal view of history de- 
scribed above, such subjects as: — 
(i) Our foreign relations. 

(2) Our territorial growth. 

(3) The tariff. 

(4) Banking. 

(5) The rise and fall of political parties. 

(6) American inventions and the economic 

change wrought by them. 

(7) Railroads and how they have modified life. 

These and a dozen others will form interesting sub- 
jects for investigation. They may overlap often, but this 
will do no harm. Go deeply into them, getting pupils 
to think and investigate. 



XXVII. CIVIL GOVERNMENT 

In this great free country of ours, no boy or girl 
should leave school without a practical knowledge of civil 
government. If the State is justified in its vast ex- 
penditure of money to perpetuate itself, it is justified 
in demanding that the children in its schools be taught 
the fundamental principles upon which the government 
rests. No subject creates a keener interest under a live 
teacher; no subject is more potent with thought-develop- 
ing topics; no subject is more closely connected with the 
development of good citizenship in the coming genera- 
tion; and few subjects are more grossly neglected in 
many of our schools. Hundreds of pupils are leaving 
school each year, many of them graduates of our com- 
mon schools, boys who are soon to be voters, when they 
cannot quote the preamble of the Constitution of the 
United States, tell the different methods by which a 
president may be elected, or how a law may be passed by 
Congress. These are sad facts, but if you doubt them, 
propose such questions before a teachers' institute or on 
a teachers' examination, and note the answers. 

Week after week have I heard teachers in institute 
grind over the period of voyage and discovery, interest- 
ing as it may be, and yet I knew full well many had 
never read the constitution of their own State and some 
had never studied the Constitution of the United States 
carefully enough to be acquainted with its main pro- 
visions. Often do you see courses of study in which 
provision is made for a minute study of the history of 

268 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT 269 

Greece and Rome, and sometimes England, when less 
than a month's time is devoted to the study of civil gov- 
ernment, and this only in connection with the general 
subject of United States history. The subject of civil 
government is in my judgment so important and yet so 
neglected in many of our schools that I want to em- 
phasize its study. Take these points home to you : — 

/. To neglect this study is unpardonable in American 
teachers. 

2. If you do not interest your class intensely in the 
subject it is due to lack of enthusiasm on your part or 
ignorance of the subject. 

J. This subject should not be put off until the pupils 
are able to take up a formal text in the high school, but 
many information questions of interest and importance 
may be discussed in the grades. 

4. The subject of civil government should then be 
thoroughly reviezved, together zvith a thorough study of 
the Constitution of the United States and the constitution 
of the State in the advanced grades of the common school 
or in the high school course. 

There is no serious difficulty in the teaching of civil 
government except lack of enthusiasm and knowledge 
on the part of the teacher. Pupils are easily interested, 
parents will become enthusiastic about it, and the only 
caution needed by the teacher is to use tact on disputed 
points, and to avoid partisan arguments. The teacher 
is a poor diplomat who cannot discuss the tariff, free 
coinage. State rights, our foreign policy, or internal im- 
provements without making strife or ill feeling. 

An uncompromising free-silver man taught in an un- 
compromising gold standard community during the cam- 



270 MANAGBMBNT AND METHODS 

paign of 1896. Almost every patron knew what his 
opinions were, and yet he made no enemies nor stirred up 
opposition. He did not, however, argue politics at the 
post-office or on the goods box in front of the store. 
There, as in school, he granted each man his opinion, 
did not contradict, and did not try to make converts to 
his opinions. A more serious matter came two years 
later when he stated to the class in civil government that 
there was not a man in the county who voted for 
McKinley. The next day one boy reported, " Pa said that 
any man who said he didn't vote for McKinley lied." 
The teacher did not get ruffled, but a few days later, after 
a careful reading and discussion of the Constitution, they 
began to study it by subject and outline. Among the 
topics under " The President " were " Age," " Qualifi- 
cations," '' Term," " How elected," etc. When it came 
to the manner of electing the president the process was 
carefully discussed. To the mere Constitutional pro- 
vision many points of actual practice were added, such 
as nominating the persons for the electoral college, plan 
of voting, counting the votes, etc. Some days later, in 
reviewing the subject, this same boy reported in some- 
thing of a drawling voice, " Pa says he guesses he didn't 
vote for McKinley after all. He's been readen my history 
ever' night for a week or more, an' he says there is a 
heap of things there he didn't know." 

What you want is for your pupils and patrons to 
think. They may or may not think as you do, but 
thinking will beget interest in the subject. 

The teacher of civil government must read and be in- 
terested in what is going on in the world. He must be 
interested in what Congress and the legislature are doing. 
This interest will arouse the enthusiasm of pupils. They 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT 271 

should read current events — not necessarily the daily 
papers, but papers which give a clear, unbiased summary 
of the happenings of the week or the month. There are 
two troubles with the daily paper in the school-room : It 
is too bulky, and it is partisan. The daily paper, too, 
seldom gives enough of both sides of a question for the 
best use in the school-room. There are, however, many 
good reviews now, reasonably non-partisan, which may 
be placed in the hands of a class in civil government. It 
is well, also, that pupils learn to read the daily papers 
under the supervision of a teacher, and without taking 
issue he may teach them to take partisan statements with 
a grain of allowance. 

Pupils should make a careful study of the Constitu- 
tion of the United States, and the constitution of their 
own State before leaving school. There are many ex- 
cellent texts which trace the origin and growth of our 
government. Such a knowledge is essential to the his- 
torian and useful to all, but let me insist that the growth 
and origin of our Constitution should not overshadow 
the Constitution itself. 

My experience is that it is easy to interest pupils in 
the workings of t'he government as it is, but hard to in- 
terest many pupils in the origin of the government first. 
The trouble is, pupils begin to study about the origin of 
the township and county before they have any conception 
of the township and county as it is. Early in the school 
course the pupils should be taught these divisions. They 
should know the offices, and be able to name the officers 
and to tell many of their duties. They should learn in 
the lower grades where one must go to get a deed re- 
corded, to whom they must pay taxes, etc. Then, too, 
they must know something of the Constitution, how a 



272 MANAGBMBNT AND METHODS 

president is elected, how a bill becomes a law, how a 
bill is passed over the president's veto, and numerous 
similar things, before they can be interested in the growth 
of constitutional liberty in Europe and America. Per- 
haps, under ideal conditions, in schools of large equip- 
ment and libraries, with long terms and well-trained 
teachers, in communities of wealth, culture, and much 
reading, it might be that pupils could begin with early 
civilization, and trace step by step up to our present effi- 
cient system of government. Such conditions do not 
exist in our rural and village schools, and it will be 
years before they will exist. Our teachers are not yet 
trained until they can make a success of the " world- 
view " plan. 

A teacher of much prominence told me he never 
could find what he wanted to in the Constitution because 
it was so mixed up. Evidently he had not studied it 
carefully. Take a copy of the Constitution, and note the 
following general arrangement : — 

1. Statement of the purpose — The Preamble. 

2. The Legislative Department — Article I. 

3. The Executive Department — Article II. 

4. The Judicial Department — Article III. 

5. The Relations of the States — Article IV. 

6. The Methods of Amendment — Article V. 

7. The Supremacy of the Constitution — Article VI. 

8. The Ratification of the Constitution — Article VII. 

9. The Amendments. 

(i) The Bill of Rights — Articles 1 to X. 

(2) Limiting the Judicial Power — Article XL 

(3) Election of President and Vice-President — 

Article XII. 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT 273 

(4) Results of the Civil War — Articles XIII, 
XIV, XV. 

After this general bird's-eye view and a careful read- 
ing of the Constitution, the class are ready to study it 
more minutely by outline. There are many good out- 
lines published, which will be helpful to the teacher. 
He must, however, adapt them to his school and his 
class. The pupils should not only keep the outline care- 
fully, but should be able to give the main features of it 
from memory. It will be time well spent to have the 
class commit these topics. Then, too, they should be 
able to quote many passages from the Constitution. 

Study your State constitution in school. You can 
doubtless secure copies for the class from your Secretary 
of State. There may be slight variations, but in general 
you will find the following: — 

1. Purpose, or Preamble. 

2. Legislative Department. 

3. Executive Department. 

4. Judicial Department. 

5. Prohibitions on the State. 

6. General Provisions. 

Study it thoroughly and make an exhaustive outline 
of it for your own use and a shorter one for class use. 
Discuss fully with the class such topics as Right of Suf- 
frage, Constitutional Offices as distinguished from Legis- 
lative Offices, Prohibitions on the Legislature, Terms of 
Office, State Debts and Obligations, Educational Pro- 
visions, and numerous others. Such discussions open 
many opportunities for the teacher to impress upon the 
pupils the duties of good citizenship. This can be done 
best by question and illustration without the pupils feel- 
ing that they are being lectured. Is voting a duty? 
ta 



274 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

Is it the duty of a good citizen to uphold the law ? Should 
a man inform the proper authorities when he knows a 
law is being violated? 

One thing the teacher should impress, and that is the 
duty of tax-paying, and that cheerfully. It is not an 
uncommon thing for many persons to look upon taxes 
as robbery, and tax collectors as oppressors. Boys soon 
to be voters sometimes see no reason for paying taxes. 
Show them that for the protection of life and property 
as well as for the general welfare taxes are necessary. 
Suppose a man steals your horse, burns your house, or 
attacks you in person ; to whom must you appeal ? The 
sheriff, the constable, or the police. If you then are 
given this protection, should you help to pay for it? 
The live teacher of civil government may make his in- 
fluence felt for good in the community for years. 

A teacher of civil government must not be afraid to 
ask questions, even though they may be questions which 
in a sense are unanswerable. They may be questions 
upon which statesmen themselves would differ, but such 
questions are found intensely interesting, and a discus- 
sion of them in class is a valuable thing. The teacher 
can readily make out several hundred questions, some 
bearing directly upon the Constitution itself, and some 
upon history and political economy in its connection with 
civil government, and others upon questions of right 
and wrong of existing conditions, which will create a 
great deal of interest. Below are given a few questions 
out of a long list which have been discussed in my civil 
government class. Many of them were not settled, and 
are still open for discussion in your classes. 

I. Who chooses the United States Representatives? 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT 275 

Must Representatives be residents of the districts they 
represent ? 

2. State definitely what qualities a citizen of your 
own State must have in order to vote for a Representa- 
tive in Congress. 

3. Would it be possible for a person not a citizen 
of the United States to legally vote for a Congressman? 
Explain. 

4. Could a woman become a member of Congress? 

5. Should a Representative move out of a State and 
become a bona-fide citizen of another State after his 
election, could he serve the time for which he was elected ? 

6. Suppose there is a vacancy in a Congressional 
district and the executive of the State should refuse to 
issue writs of election, could he be compelled to do so? 
How? By whom? What would be the result while 
the matter was pending? 

7. Suppose from sickness, accident, or insanity a 
Senator were permanently disabled to be in Congress, 
who would have the right to declare a vacancy? 

8. A newspaper once declared that New York had 
three Senators wliile Ohio had but one. Could such be 
possible? How? 

9. Why is Congress not allowed to name the place 
for the election of United States Senators? 

10. Could Congress meet anywhere but in Washing- 
ton City? How could this be done? 

11. Is a member of Congress a State or a United 
States officer? Who pays his salary? 

12. What is meant by " for any speech or debate in 
either house they shall not be questioned in any other 
place"? 



276 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

13. Suppose a Congressman makes a confession of 
his guilt in some crime while speaking in Congress, could 
this be used in convicting him of the crime later? 

14. Why are Senators and Representatives forbidden 
to hold any civil office created or whose salary has been 
increased during the time for which he has been elected? 

15. Suppose the Senator were elected for six years, 
and during the first two years of his office some position 
is created by Congress ; could this Senator resign and be 
appointed to that office for the remaining four years? 

16. Why is a Senator or a Representative not per- 
mitted to serve in Congress and hold an office under the 
United States government at the same time? Could a 
member of Congress hold a State office while serving in 
Congress ? 

17. What is the only question Congress may decide 
without submitting it to the president? 

18. Could a Canadian be punished for counterfeiting 
our money? How? 

19. Do the residents of the District of Columbia vote? 
Do they pay taxes? 

20. Could a State grant titles of nobility? 

21. Could the king of England send the president of 
the United States a gold watch for a Christmas present? 
Could an English citizen do so? 

22. Upon what conditions could a State begin war 
without the consent of the United States? 

23. Could a State own a war vessel in time of peace? 
In time of war? 

24. Could a postmaster be an elector for president or 
vice-president ? Why ? 



CiyiL GOVERNMENT 277 

25. Did you ever see a man who had voted for a 
president ? 

26. Could the legislatures of the several States enact 
laws which would make possible the election of the presi- 
dent without consulting the people? 

27. Could Alexander Hamilton ■ have been president 
of the United States? 

28. Could a boy born in China while his parents were 
missionaries there become president? 

29. Some years ago a son was born to our Minister 
to England while he was residing in London. Would 
this son be eligible to the presidency? 

30. Should the president be confined to his bed sev- 
eral weeks with typhoid fever, would the vice-president 
act during this time? 

31. Could the president be removed from office for 
inefficiency or poor judgment? 

32. Could a United States judge be removed from 
office for getting drunk? 

33. Why is Congress forbidden to lower the salary 
of a judge? 

34. Suppose a' crime is committed on a steamboat on 
the Mississippi River, where would the criminal be tried ? 

35. What are some of the practical results of the 
constitutional requirements that " public acts, records, 
and judicial proceedings shall be given full faith and 
credit in every other State " ? 

36. Explain the meaning of the clause, ** Citizens of 
each State shall be entitled to all privileges of citizens 
in the several States." 

37. A State Legislature recently forbade citizens 
of other States fishing in that State, and permitted cit- 



278 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

izens of that State to fish. Do you think this a vio- 
lation of the above clause? 

38. Suppose a criminal should take refuge in an ad- 
joining State, and the executive of that State refused 
to deliver up the accused when called upon by the execu- 
tive of the State from which he fled, could he be com- 
pelled to do so? How? 

39. What is necessary to create a new State from 
the territory of one or more States? Explain the cre- 
ation of West Virginia. 

40. Would Congress have the power to sell one of 
our Territories, for example. New Mexico? 

41. Could Congress sell one of our States? Why? 

42. Could the president send troops to a State to su- 
press a riot unless asked to do so by the governor or 
the legislature of that State? 

43. Could the president send troops into a State to 
protect United States property in times of danger with- 
out consulting the executive or legislature of the State? 

44. What steps are necessary to amend the Consti- 
tution ? 

45. What one clause of the Constitution could not be 
changed without the consent of the State or States af- 
fected ? 

46. What one clause of the Constitution declares its 
supremacy over the State constitutions or laws? 

47. Could the United States seize my house or farm 
for public use ? What would be the result ? How would 
it be determined? 

48. Show how it would be legal to elect both the 
president and the vice-president from the same State. 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT 279 

49. Suppose a vice-president should be elected and 
the president should fail to be elected before the 4th 
of March. Which vice-president would serve, the old 
one or the one just elected? 

50. How would the vote of a State be determined, as 
for example New York in the election of a president by 
the House of Representatives? 

51. Suppose a man ineligible on account of age, citi- 
zenship, or some other cause, to be elected president, and 
this ineligibility should not be proved until after he had 
served a few months. What would be the result ? Who 
would succeed him? Would the acts which he had ap- 
proved be legal? 



XXVIII. PHYSIOLOGY 

PhysioIvOGy is one of the newest subjects to be taught 
in the pubHc schools. Like scientific temperance, the 
legislators who made physiology a legal study, were look- 
ing to the practical results which would come from the 
general study of this subject by the young people. Phys- 
iology, rightfully taught, has for its object at least three 
ends : — 

1. A practical knowledge of the laws of health and 
how to develop and care for the body. 

2. The general culture value and mental discipline 
which may come, in a degree, from the study of any 
subject. 

3. In many classes it is nearly the only scientific study 
taught, and when properly taught it gives the mental dis- 
cipline, the power of observation, and the training of 
judgment, which are peculiar to the sciences. 

The first object stated above should never be lost 
sight of by the teacher. Health is a blessing without 
which all other blessings are in vain. To understand the 
development and care of the body, to know how to reg- 
ulate the diet, the exercise, and to know the uplift which 
comes from personal care and cleanliness, — if these 
things are accomplished, the teacher has done well. It 
used to be thought that the body should never be the 
subject of discussion, and that ignorance of its growth 
and development was commendable. The growth of pop- 
ulation, the crowded cities, and the sanitary conditions 
made necessary from social and civic conditions, have 

280 



PHYSIOLOGY 281 

changed this. A sound mind in a sound body is essential 
to the highest success in Hfe to the individual. The com- 
munity cannot neglect or be indifferent to anything that 
lies so near its very existence. 

Then the numerous Httle things that young people 
need to know can nowhere else be taught so well. The 
care of the teeth, the nails, the hair, the eyes, the ears, 
all of these things are essential. All of them properly 
belong under physiology, although they may often be 
grouped under the general term, health lessons. 

Great reforms will finally come from the teaching 
of the laws of health in the elementary schools. It takes 
one or more generations to discern the fruits of such 
teaching. Already the average of human life is being 
lengthened in civilized countries, and a better understand- 
ing of nature's laws and a more careful observation of 
the laws of health will yet add a decade to the average 
life of man. The effect of stimulants and narcotics, 
the prevention of disease, the care of the sick, directions 
for emergencies, what to do in case of accidents, all these 
subjects properly belong to physiology. The teacher 
who neglects them neglects his duty. It may be that 
the text-book does' not mention all of these, but the teacher 
who is alive to his opportunities will not neglect them. 

This knowledge may be made a discipline and will 
lead to culture in the individual. Mind grows by its 
activity. Useful knowledge is knowledge which will add 
to the comfort or convenience, to the health or happiness 
of the individual. This knowledge then will be useful 
for its own sake. 

The value of all scientific study, over and above that 
which comes from mathematics or language, is due to 
the observation and the methods by which such knowl- 



282 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

edge is acquired. It brings, or should bring, the pupil 
in contact with nature. In the study of physiology the 
child should never think of physiology as being something 
away off yonder or in some book. It must be himself. 
He is the object of study. Physiology thus taught will 
have much of the disciplinary value common to the nat- 
ural sciences. 

To teach physiology successfully the teacher must 
have, as in other subjects, a broader and deeper knowl- 
edge than will come from having read one elementary 
author. He must have read more widely and more deeply 
if he is to be the fountain of inspiration to the class. 
He must also have seen many of the things first-hand, 
and must be able to show these same things to his class 
and be so intensely interested in them that the class will 
be stimulated by his interest. He must be able to illus- 
trate by drawing, modeling, or by the use of natural ob- 
jects, many things described. This is really scientific 
study. Collecting, grouping, accounting for facts and 
phenomena, is scientific teaching. 

The teacher should have clearly in mind the subject 
he is going to present to the class. He should have 
clearly in mind also just how he can best illustrate and 
make these things plain to his class. He must know the 
text-book he is to teach, and must have studied it thor- 
oughly enough so that he knows the author's point of 
view. He should have in his mind the author's outline 
of the subject, and upon these points he must have ad- 
ditional information, and must know where the pupils 
may find additional information suitable to their own use. 

Physiology should begin with well-planned health 
lessons. These lessons should be oral and adapted to the 
understanding and conditions of the pupils. These may 



PHYSIOLOGY 283 

be subjects of conversation between the teacher and the 
pupils, even in the primary grades. They should be in- 
formation lessons largely. The teacher must plan such 
lessons systematically, however, if the above results are 
to be obtained. 

The lesson may be on the care of the hands, or a 
number of lessons may be devoted to this topic. The 
teacher, in a conversational way, may tell the pupils of 
the different parts of the skin ; the purpose of the nails ; 
how the hands should be cared for ; what causes the hands 
to chap ; how the nails should be trimmed and cared 
for; the effect of soap and why, and how to clean the 
hands ; and numerous other such things. 

The care of the teeth is another excellent topic. 
Show even the smaller pupils the different parts of the 
tooth, and tell how it is composed. Explain why it is 
necessary to remove the temporary teeth as soon as 
loose, and why it is injurious to crack nuts with the 
teeth. Teach them how the teeth should be cared for; 
why a metal toothpick may be injurious ; and many other 
things which will be of great use to them personally in 
after life, and in^ which they will be greatly interested 
at the time. 

Teach also the proper way of caring for the hair. 
Especially children should be taught how to properly 
care for the eyes. If such teaching did nothing more 
than to secure better lighted school-rooms for the next 
geiieration, the teachers of the present generation would 
be well repaid. Correct breathing and carriage, proper 
exercise, may also form subjects of conversation with 
even the smallest pupils. 

The teacher who is alert will have no trouble in 
finding a store of information which will please and 



284 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

profit even the older classes. Here, too, the teacher may 
add much to the interest and profit of the subject if he 
brings into the study illustrations from the animal world. 
The teacher, however, in these grades, as well as in 
higher grades, should discourage experiments of what- 
ever kind that involve cruelty to the lower animals or 
insects. In the university or medical school, no doubt, 
the ends justify the means of such experimentation with 
animals, even the taking of life in dangerous operations, 
and vivisection may be justified in such advanced work. 
Many small but interesting and instructive experiments 
may be performed which will* in no way endanger or 
hurt these animals. Many simple experiments in physics 
and chemistry will also be of much profit in these grades. 
A good microscope will be of almost incalculable value 
to the teacher and of intense interest and delight to the 
pupils. 

In advanced physiology some text-book will, no doubt, 
be the basis of the work. There are a number of good 
ones on the market. The teacher must supplement these 
texts at all times. The first preparation of the teacher 
should be to get clearly in mind the author's view point 
in writing the treatise. He is then better prepared to pre- 
sent the subject. He may often present it in a different 
order from that given by the author, and to good 
advantage. Scientifically, the bones should be per- 
haps among the last subjects treated. Practically, they 
are the easiest taught. If the teacher understands the 
author's view point, he may take up the subjects in the 
order which he prefers. 

The pupil should be taught to master the text. Many 
new terms will be met for the first time. The spelling 
and meaning of those terms should be fastened in mind 



PHYSIOLOGY 285 

from the very first. Many of these terms will be self- 
explanatory if the teacher will see that the pupils un- 
derstand the root meaning of the word. After the pupils 
have mastered the text of the author it is well for them 
to review the subject, following some definite outline 
which will designate just what points they are to look 
for. They should be taught to make outlines of the dif- 
ferent parts of the body, and so thoroughly master these 
that they can reproduce them from memory. The out- 
line of the skeleton is easily taught, and also the circu- 
latory system, the respiratory system, the digestive 
system, the nervous system, and the organs of special 
sense. All may be taught from outline. When the 
pupils leave the subject, they should be so familiar with 
the outline that they can reproduce it from memory. 
They must carry away numerous facts. There is no 
good reason or common sense for the fad which has 
been, to a large extent, prevalent, that the pupils should 
not be required to commit anything to memory. The 
only thing is, that it should be intelligently committed. 
They should understand the thought. 

In the advanced grades more experimental work can 
be done. The bones of animals may be examined. Al- 
most any of the recent physiologies will give numerous 
simple experiments which the teacher can readily per- 
form. The heart and lungs and the digestive organs of 
a hog or chicken may be examined. The teaching that 
does not refer to the objects in teaching such subjects 
can hardly be called good teaching of physiology. These 
objects may be handled so daintily as not to disgust the 
most shrinking or the most fastidious pupil. Teachers 
should take into consideration the timidity of many pu- 
pils, in such experiments. In the study of the eye, obtain 



286 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

the eye of an ox from a butcher and examine it while 
frozen. In fact, nearly all parts of the body should be 
illustrated by these parts of the animal. 

In the advanced grades, also, the teacher can go more 
deeply into the laws of health, and the ways by which 
health may be maintained. 

Foods and their comparative worth may be discussed, 
as well as proper methods of preparation. See, before 
all things, that the work is sensible and practical. Pre- 
pare the pupils for the common emergencies of life by 
seeing that they know what to do in emergencies and how 
to do it, as in case of a broken limb, a divided artery, or 
in scalds, burns, bruises, drowning, or poisoning from 
any of the common poisons, etc. The teacher will find 
that the pupils not only delight in such things, but it 
may be th£ cause of saving some one's life in the future. 

If physiology is properly taught, pupils will be fas- 
cinated with the study, and from it will come some of 
the best lessons of the school course. 



XXIX. SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE 

Within the last few years this subject has been 
added to the branches required by law to be taught in 
the public schools of many States. Such laws have been 
urged and demanded by the Woman's Christian Tem- 
perance Union and numerous other religious and reform 
associations, and many of the laws have been framed by 
these ardent temperance advocates. Originating in this 
way, it is to be expected that many extravagant demands 
will be made upon teachers and schools. Some of the 
laws demand that a certain per cent, of the volume of 
the text-book on physiology be devoted to the effects of 
alcohol and narcotics on the organs of the body. Some 
demand that scientific temperance shall be taught daily 
in each grade of the public school — this would imply 
from the first year of the kindergarten through the uni- 
versity. Some of the demands are ludicrous in the ex- 
treme. 

These laws are^ in the main wholesome, and future 
years will show some good results from painstaking, con- 
scientious, scientific temperance teaching. The purpose 
of the subject in our school, if we consult the framers of 
the law, is less to gain a knowledge of the real effects 
of narcotics and intoxicants upon the organs of the body 
than to instill habits of temperance or of total abstinence 
from these things in the lives of the pupils. If the last 
can be accomplished, or at least partially accomplished, 
the statutes demanding that scientific temperance be 
taught in our schools will justify themselves by their 
results. 

287 



288 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

One of the greatest errors in teaching scientific tem- 
perance comes from exaggerating the evils of intem- 
perance. Boys deHght in opposition. They want to 
show that things often accepted as true are not true, and 
if a statement seems to them too broad, it drives them 
to oppose rather than to accept it. Our schools are full 
of such boys to-day, and if our teaching of temperance 
appeals to their minds, it must keep within the bounds 
of reason. 

A few years ago I examined a set of temperance 
charts widely sold in many localities, and at almost fabu- 
lous prices, and was astonished at the claims made. It 
traced all the diseases to which man is heir to the whisky 
habit. As the agent said, ** Just show this to the boys, 
and it will make them afraid to ever taste the stuff." But 
there was the mistake. We knew men suffering with 
some of these same diseases, men who had never more 
than tasted whisky, and whose fathers and grandfathers 
had been equally temperate. We knew also men as 
rugged looking and as strong as the country afforded, 
who were full of whisky one third of the time, while 
their fathers and grandfathers had been little or no 
better; and yet you could find no trace of these diseases. 
In the face of these facts, had my teacher shown me this 
chart when I was a boy, and made the extravagant claims 
about whisky, I should have settled the whole matter in 
my own mind by pronouncing it '' all bosh." Instead 
of its having made me '' afraid of the stuff," I should 
have been tempted to taste it just to show them that the 
statements were untrue. 

Keep zvithin the hounds of reason. If you want your 
teaching of temperance to be effective, keep within the 
bounds of reason and common sense. Teach earnestlv. 



SCILiNTIflC TliMPERANCn 289 

teach by precept and example, but do not overstate your 
case so much that the thinking, questioning pupils begin 
to doubt your premises. Teach them that alcohol may 
cause such results, and that it often does cause such re- 
sults : but be willing to grant that the same or similar 
results and consequences may l^e caused by other things. 
Make your case so strong that you give your opponent 
the benefit of the doubt, and still appeal to his sense of 
justice, his common sense, and his good judgment. No 
religious precept or moral principle ever found lodgment 
in a thinking mind and bore fruit in a quickened con- 
science and a more active will, unless it first satisfied that 
mind that this precept or principle was a higher truth 
than ever before existed in that mind. When the child 
learns that he has been misled and that the claims made 
are untrue, the reaction is all the greater. 

Teach indirectly. More good may be done often by 
indirect than by direct teaching in the matter of temper- 
ance. To ask the pupil to write five good reasons for 
using tobacco or alcohol, and to write these reasons out 
in full, may create more thought than any amount of 
preaching against their use. Let the reader sit down and 
write out five reasons why a boy should learn to use alco- 
hol, and see if it does not require more thought than to 
enumerate ten reasons why he should not use it ; and 
in seeking the reasons for its use the conviction forces 
itself on the mind that its use is an injury and a det- 
riment. The same is true of all fermented and distilled 
beverages. 

There is nothing gained by personal abuse. The 
temperance reformers of the world who liavc left their 
impress and who have sought and saved men, have not 

19 



290 MANAGBMBNT AND METHODS 

been those who indulge in personal abuse. You cannot 
win a man to you by saying unkind things about him. 
You must appeal to his intellect and win his sympathy 
to get his co-operation. You can win boys from to- 
bacco by kindness and firmness a dozen times when abuse 
would not. 

Cigarettes are dragging down more boys in our coun- 
try than whisky. One of the first symptoms of this habit 
is that " I don't care " attitude about school and home 
duties, and the mental sluggishness which accompanies 
it. In a few weeks' time in arithmetic and algebra the 
teacher can pick out most of the cigarette fiends. They 
lack the power of clear, acute reasoning. Nine tenths 
of them are lazy, and many of them sullen and insolent 
They care little for school, and less for their father's or 
mother's words. 

Some years ago a teacher suspicioned before the end 
of the first month of school that one of his high school 
boys smoked cigarettes. Upon inquiry of his father 
about the boy's progress, the teacher said the boy was 
not doing good work, and stated that he had all the symp- 
toms of the cigarette smoker. His father was indignant 
at the suggestion. He knew his boy did not do such a 
thing. The teacher watched the boy faithfully for nearly 
six months before he caught him smoking. He could 
not swear to the contents of the roll of paper he was 
smoking, and an affidavit would probably not have con- 
vinced the father. It would have done no good to abuse 
the boy. A number of good frank talks helped him. The 
teacher pointed out that the cigarettes were affecting his 
will, or he would not give way to them. It was a battle 
royal. A little opium-soaked paper enclosing tobacco 
on one side, a boy with all the qualities for making a 



SCIIiNTIfIC rUMPURANCH 291 

worthy man on the other. To continue smoking, to sur- 
render to a Httle cigarette soldier, meant ignominious 
defeat in many of the best things of hfe. Which should 
be victor, the boy or the cigarette? He and he alone 
should decide. 

Ridicule, if done indirectly, is often helpful. Humor 
and whole-hearted companionship will accomplish much. 
Josh Billings has been accredited wath the definition of a 
cigar as " a little roll of tobacco with a fire at one end 
and a fool at the other." Perhaps he would have defined 
a cigarette as '' a little roll of paper filled with tobacco 
with a little less fire at one end and a much bigger fool 
at the other." The teacher who has the personality to 
say such things, and to carry the majority of his school 
with him, may create a sentiment among the boys against 
these habits, and this is worth more than all the scientific 
facts known to prevent cigarette smoking. 

One boy of my acquaintance, not a bad boy — you 
would have never suspected it by looking at him — 
smoked the cigar stubbs he found in the street. Like 
the child who has never learned to question the cleanli- 
ness and propriety of spitting on a slate to erase the 
pencil marks, this boy had never considered that these 
stubbs were unclean. His teacher took him aside and 
in a pleasant way spoke of the bad effects of smoking. 
She did not speak as if she suspicioned him of smoking. 
She told how smoking depraved some boys until they 
would even pick up cigar stubbs that others threw away. 
She then pictured the sore mouths some smokers had, 
the unclean teeth, the bad breath, the filthy saliva, the 
foul mucous secretions, and the obnoxious nasal dis- 
charges which often find an outlet through the mouth, 
until the bov never cared to take hold of another stubb 



2!)L' MANAGBMLiNT AND MUTHODS 

with his hand, much less to place it in his mouth. Better 
still, it proved a new birth to the boy. From that day 
he was initiated into a higher life, and rose to a higher 
plane, the plane of personal cleanliness. The old adage, 
" Cleanliness is next to godliness," has much truth in it. 
It is unfortunate that many older persons might not, 
through such a talk or some other means, be helped to 
such a plane. If they were, there would be cleaner side- 
walks, public parks, and street cars. 

Suggestive course of study in scientific temperance. 
Since the passage of the laws in many of the States re- 
quiring the teaching of scientific temperance in the 
schools, there have appeared a number of books upon 
the subject. Yet many teachers find it hard to unify 
the work of the course. There is such a demand for 
help on this that we feel justified in giving an outline 
of a course of study which will meet the requirements of 
most of the State laws. It may be found helpful to many 
teachers. No originality is claimed for this more than 
in the arrangement. The school may be divided into 
three sections, — the primary grades, the intermediate 
grades, and the advanced grades, — and the work in these 
divisions may be in general as follows : — 

The Primary Grades. 
i^ Food. 

1- Why we need food. 

2- Good kinds of food. 

i^ Name ten kinds. 

2^ Simple explanations of why some kinds are 

better than others. 
3^ How to eat. 

i"^ Slowly — why? 



SC/JiXTfl'/C TliMriiRAXCn 2!i8 

2^ Chewing, etc. 
3^ Lessons in table manners. 
2' Drinks. 

1- Why we need them. 

2- Show that all plants and animals need to drink. 

3- Kinds of drinks. 

1=^ The best. 

2" Why tea and coffee are not good for most 

children. 
3""^ How to drink, when to drink, and reasons 

for the same. 
3^ Tobacco. 

1- What it is. 

2- Explain why it is not a food. 

3- Explain why it does not make good blood. 

4- The poison from the tobacco goes directly into 

the blood. 

5- It makes persons very sick nntil the system be- 

comes nsed to the poison. 
4^ Cigarettes. 

1- Worse than tobacco becanse they combine the 

evil effects of tobacco and other narcotics. 

2- If the cigarette papers were not soaked in opi- 

ates, any other paper wonld answer as well. 

5^ Alcoholic drinks. 

1- Explain alcohol and alcoholic drinks. 

2- Name some of the most common. 

3- What the poison is in alcohol. 

4- Explain how the system retains this poison. 

5- Explain alcoholic appetite. 

6'"' This appetite grows rapidly nntil the system must 
have more and more of the poison. This is 
especially true of tobacco, alcoholic drinks, 
opium, chloral, and cocaine. 



294 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

7- Explain fermentation. 

i^ What is wine? 

I* How made. 

2* Compare the making of wine and vin- 
egar. 
2" What is beer? 

I* How made. 

2* Compare with wine and vinegar. 

8- Explain distillation. 

i^ How do distilled and fermented products 
differ. 
6^ Care of the body. 
I" The bones, 

i^ How bones grow. 

2^ Some causes of weak bones. 

3^ Effect of tight shoes on the bones of the 
foot. 

4^ How we may improve our form. 

5^ Effects of tobacco on the bones. 

6^ Effects of alcohol on the bones. 
2- The muscles. 

i^ What the muscles are. 

2" What the muscles do. 

3^ How we may make the muscles strong. 

4^ How men train for racing and athletic 
sports. 

5^ Effects of exercise on the muscles. 

6^ Effects of tobacco on the muscles. 

7^ Effects of alcohol on the muscles. 
3^ The skin. 

i^ What it is. 

2^ Its use. 

3^ The layers. 



SCIUNTIPIC TBMPBRANCa 295 

4'' The purpose of the pores. 

5"^ How to keep the skin clean. 

6^ Why bathing is necessary. 

7^ Directions for bathing. 

8'' Care of the hair. 

9"' Care of the nails. 
lO" Care of the teeth. 

11^ What a bad cold is and how to avoid it. 
12^ Effects of tobacco on the skin. 
13^ Effects of alcohol on the skin. 
14^ Effects of other poisons on the skin. 
The blood. 

i' What it is. 

2^ How it is supplied. 

3^ What it does for the body. 

43 \Yhy it should be pure. 

5"^ How we may keep it pure. 

6^ Effects of tobacco on the blood. 

7^ Effects of beer and alcohol on the blood. 

8" Why alcohol causes a flushed face. 

93 Why alcohol is not a benefit in cold 
weather. 
Breathing. 

i^ How to breathe properly. 

2^ Effect of tight clothing on breathing. 

3' Importance of pure air. 
. 4" Why close rooms are unhealthy. 

53 Why we should breathe through the nose. 

6^ Effect of tobacco on the lungs. 

7^ Effect of alcohol on the lungs. 
The brain and the nerves. 

i"^ Purpose of these organs. 

2^ How protected. 



29C MANAGEMUNT AND METHODS 

3^ Effects of impure blood upon them. 

4^ The worrying habit and how to avoid it. 

5^ Pure air and sunshine. 

6^ Effects of tobacco on the brain and nerves. 

7^ Effects of alcohol on the brain and nerves. 

8^ Importance of sleep. 
7" Direction for care of the eyes. 
7^ Discuss in a plain simple way such subjects as these 
with the pupils : — 

1- How food is changed in the body. 

2- How and why we should chew our food. 

3^ Why we should not use strong tea and coffee. 

4" Why spices and candies are not good for us. 

5^ Why ice water is not best for us. 

6^ Why do men use tobacco? 

7" Effects of tobacco and alcohol on the mind. 

Intcnncdiatc Grades. 
i^ General character of alcohol. 

I- Definition and history. 

2^ Fermentation — Illustrate. 

3" Physical properties of alcohol. 

4" Distillation — Illustrate. 

5" Spirituous liquors. 

6- Classification of liquors. 
2^ Chemical composition of alcohol. 
3^ Use of alcohol. 

1- In the arts. 

2- In the preparation of drugs. 

3- As a beverage. 

4^ Action of alcohol on living animal tissue. 

1- Alcohol as a drink. 

2- Alcohol as a food. 

3- Alcohol as a heat producer. 



SCIUNTIFIC rUMFHRANCE 297 

4^ Effects on circulation. 

5^ Effects on the blood. 

6^ Effects on the nerves. 

7" Stai2:es in alcoholic effects. 

8^ Make a summary of the action of alcohol on the 

tissues. 
5* Action of alcohol on the mind. 

i^ The inter-relation of the nervous system and the 

mind. 
2^ The faculties of the mind are all affected. 

i^ Perception is faulty. 

2^ Cannot think clearly. 

3^ Memory is less clear. 

4^ The imagination is unrestrained. 

5^ The reasoning powers enfeebled. 

6^ The finer sensibilities blunted. 

7^ Dulls the respect for self and others. 
3^ Action of alcohol on the will. 
4^ The cumulative habit. 
5=^ "* ake a summary of the effects of alcohol on 

the mind. 
6^ The * reditary ^ effects of alcohol. 

i^ • ngers of transmitting alcoholic tendencies to 

future generations. 
2- Objections to a moderate use of alcohol. Name 

five. 

7^ Alcohol in its relation to crime. 
i^ A right action involves — 

i^ A knowledge of what is right. 
2^ A feeling of obligation to perform. 
3^ An exercise of the will in choosing and 
doing. 
2^ All criminal actions lack one of these elements. 

20 



298 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

i^ The person either does not know what is 
right, or 

2^ He is lacking in his sense of duty in what 
he knows is right, or 

3^ He fails in self-control. 
3^ These are the negative elements of crime. The 

positive elements are : — 

i^ A knowledge that the act is wrong. 

2^ A desire to commit evil. 

3^ Willing to commit the crime. 
4^ From these elements of criminal actions and the 

eflfects of alcohol on the mind it is easy to 

trace a direct relation between alcohol and 

crime. 
8^ Other stimulants and narcotics with their influence on 
body and mind. 
I- Tea. 
2^ Coffee. 



3^ 


Tobacco. 


A- 


Opium. 


S' 


Chloral. 




Advanced Grades. 


Ico 


holic drinks. 


i2 


Definition. 


2' 


Formation. 




i^ By fermentation — Illu 




I* Beer. 




2' Wine. 




3* Cider. 




2^ Distillation — Illustrate 




I* Whisky. 




2* Brandy. 




3* Rum. 



Illustrate process. 



SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE 299 

4* Gin. 
5^ Alcohol. 
3^ Composition. 

i^ Alcohol, the important ingredient of each 
of the above is composed of carbon, hy- 
drogen, and oxygen. 

2^ Carbonic acids. 

3^ Ethers, waters, etc. 
4" Properties. 

1 3 Volatile. 

2^ Inflammable. 

3^ The products of alcoholic combustion are 
carbonic acid and water. 

4^ Great affinity for water. 
5^ Amount of alcohol in different beverages. 

i^ Alcohol — 90 to 98 per cent. 

2^ Whisky — 45 to 58 per cent. 

3^ Brandy — 42 to 51 per cent. 

4^ Rum, about 49 per cent. 

5^ Gin, about 42 per cent. 

6^ Wines, 15 to 23 per cent. 
6^ General effects on the system. 

i^ The circulation at first is abnormally in- 
creased and is later correspondingly de- 
creased. 

2^ The red blood corpuscles are contracted 
and their power to carry oxygen les- 
sened. 

3^ Congestion and apoplexy often result. 

4^ Produces fatty degeneration. 
I* Explain. 

2* Organs thus affected. 
1 5 Heart. 



300 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

2^ Liver. 
3^ Kidneys. 
4^ Nerves. 
5^ Effect on brain. Review intermediate 
work. 

I* Diminishes mental power. 
2* Causes delirium tremens. 
3* Sometimes causes insanity. 
6^ Its great affinity for water causes alcohol 

to absorb this liquid from the tissues. 
7^ It is not a food and enters the blood un- 

assimilated. 
8^ Moral effects. Review intermediate work. 
I* Creates an appetite for strong drink. 
2* Leads to immoral associations. 
3* Causes poverty, drunkenness, and 
crime. 

Some Review Outlines. 
\^ Alcohol. 

T^ Properties. 

i^ Colorless. 

2^ Pungent taste. 

3^ Peculiar and pleasing odor. 

4^ Inflammable and does not smoke when 

burning. 
5^ Will not freeze. 
6^ Absorbs water and oxygen. 
7^ Mixes readily with oils. 
2' Uses. 

i^ Used by jewelers and others for blow-pipe 

flame for welding. 
2^ Dissolves gums. 
3^ Used to mix with oils. 



SCIENTIFIC TBMPBRANCB 301 

'4^ Used in spirit levels and in thermometers. 
5* Used for preserving numerous kinds of or- 
ganic matter in museums and laborato- 
ries. 
3^ Effects on the body, 
i^ How shown. 

I* By experimental investigation. 
2* By observation. 
2^ Effects on digestion. 
I* Direct. 

i^ Increases flow of gastric juice. 
2^ Coagulates albumin. 
3^ Precipitates pepsin. 
4^ Inflames mucous membrane. 
5* Hinders digestion. 
2* Indirect. 

i^ Affects nervous system and this 

reacts upon digestion. 
2^ May cause thickening of walls 
of the stomach. 

3^ Effects on temperature of the body. 

i* Paralyzes nerves controlling capilla- 
ries; hence the blood flows to the 
surface and gives a feeling of 
warmth to the body. 
2* This will cause the person to freeze 
more quickly, as more blood is on 
the surface. 
3* Absorbs oxygen and thus reduces the 
temperature. 
4^ Effects on moisture of tissues — it absorbs 
water and creates thirst. 



302 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

5^ Effects on circulation and on the blood. 

i^ Increases the heart beats. 

2* Long continued use causes irregular 
heart beats. 

3* Often causes fatty degeneration of the 
heart. 

4* Coagulates fibrin in the blood-vessels. 

5* Dissolves coloring matter of corpus- 
cles. 

6"^ Causes shrinking of red corpuscles. 

7* May cause deposit of earthy matter in 
the walls of the blood-vessels, hard- 
ening them. 
6^ Effects on nerve tissue. 

I* Excites nerve centers. 

2* Affects spinal cord. 

3* Hardens tissue of brain. 

4* Thickens membranes of brain. 

5* Nerves sometimes paralyzed. 

6* Results. 

i^ Inability to control movements. 
2^ Diseases of the nervous system. 
3^ Loss of mental power. 
4^ Leads to imbecility. 
5^ Paralysis and death may result. 
7^ Effects on the liver. 

I* Congestion. 

2* Enlarged or shriveled. 

3* May produce the hob-nailed liver. 

4* Unfits the liver to do its work. 
8^ Effects upon respiration. 

I* Irritates the membranes of the lung 
c^lls. 



SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE 303 

2* Causes congestion. 

3* Prevents the proper oxygenation of 
the blood. 
9^ Effects on the eyes. 

I* Inflames the membranes. 

2"^ May cause structural changes. 

3* Affects the optic nerve. 

4* May result in loss of sight. 
Summary. 

i^ Alcohol is 

I* A product of decomposition. 

2* A poison. 

3* A narcotic. 

4* An irritant. 
2^ Alcohol causes — 

I* Disease. 

2* Crime. 

3* Insanity. 

4* Death. 
3^ Alcohol frequently does the following: — 

I* Injures the blood. 

2* Wastes the vital force. 

3* Lessens the temperature of the body. 

4* Hardens the tissue of the brain. 





5^ 


Affects the liver. 






6* 


Draws moisture from the 


tissues, 


4^ 


Alcohol may cause — 






i^ 


Apoplexy. 






2* 


Heart disease. 





3* Paralysis. 

4* Congestion of many of the organs. 

5* Dyspepsia. 

6* Cancers and ulcers. 



304 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

5^ Alcohol is not a proper — 
i^ Food. 
2* Drink. 

3* Seldom a proper medicine. 
j' Effects of tobacco, 

i^ It inflames the mucous lining. 

2- It irritates the stomach. 

3^ It injures the blood corpuscles. 

4^ It disturbs the heart's action. 

5^ It affects the sight and hearing. 

6^ It weakens the nervous system. 

7^ It checks bodily and mental development in 

young persons. 
8^ It tends toward the drug habit. 
(f It is expensive, 
lo^ It is a filthy habit. 

NOTES AND EXPERIMENTS. 

Fermentation. — Alcohol is derived from the decom- 
position of sugar by fermentation. This is a chemical 
change. Sugar is a vegetable product. Starch undergoes 
a change so that sugar may be produced from it. Sugar 
and starch may be viewed together as the source of alco- 
hol. Fermentation is that well-known process of souring. 
This is caused by the growth of the ferment, a minute 
organism, which feeds on the sugar. The small organ- 
isms are found floating in the air. They quickly attack 
fruit juice, especially if the temperature is right, and 
multiply rapidly, changing the sugar into carbonic acid 
gas and alcohol. The gas may be seen forming little 
bubbles, which is usually our first intimation that the 
substance is souring. Cider, beer, and wine are the most 
common fermented drinks, and contain only limited quan- 
tities of alcohol. 



SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE 305 

Distillation. — Distillation is the separation of two 
fluids which boil at different temperatures. Alcohol boils 
at 173° F., and water at 212° F. Hence if a liquid con- 
taining alcohol be heated above 173° F., the alcohol will 
escape as vapor. This vapor may be condensed, forming 
alcohol. By re-distillation the alcohol may be obtained 
more nearly pure. Pure alcohol is a deadly poison. 

1. Pour a little alcohol in a saucer, touch a lighted 
match to it and note the flame, the heat, etc. 

2. Fill a teapot with hard cider, place it over a lamp, 
and raise it to 173° F. Connect the spout with a bottle 
by a rubber tube. Set the bottle on ice or in cold 
water. The alcohol will escape as vapor and be condensed 
in the bottle. Re-distil, and it will be found to burn, 
giving off much heat but an almost invisible flame. 

3. Secure a fresh brain from some small animal. 
Notice how soft and tender it is. Place it in a solution 
of alcohol, and notice how soon it becomes hard. The 
alcohol cooks it and absorbs the moisture from it. 

4. From the stomach of a calf or a pig secure a few 
drops of the gastric juice. Into this milky fluid pour 
a few drops of alcohol, and see how soon there will be a 
white, powdery precipitate. This is the pepsin of the 
fluid, and without this digestion cannot be perfect. 

5. Place some soil in each of two bottles, and then 
plant seeds in each. Into one bottle pour water only, 
into the other pour water mixed with a little alcohol. 
The alcohol prevents the growth of the seeds. 

6. Run a broom straw through the stem of a well- 
used pipe, obtaining some of the dark substance, princi- 
pally nicotine. Place this on the tongue of a cat. It is 
a deadly poison. 



XXX. NATURE STUDY 

Much has been written of late on nature study. The 
markets have been flooded with books on this subject, 
many of them helpful and suggestive to the teacher. 
Then, too, there have been many volumes for the pupils. 
The latter are useful enough if they arouse the pupil's 
curiosity and interest, and send him to nature for the 
answer. If, however, they are intended to take the place 
of nature, they are little better than the fairy story. 

Nature study serves three purposes : — 

I. It teaches observation. Too many children, as 
well as adults, having eyes, see not, and having ears, 
hear not the beauties and wonders of nature all about 
them. The first object of nature study is the cultivation 
of keen observation in the child. He should be quick 
to appreciate the beauties and anxious to investigate the 
wonders of plant and animal life, and open to the inspiring 
uplift of scene or sound. Too many pupils, and teachers, 
too, have never seen a feather — that is, they have never 
even noticed that the common feather is composed of 
numerous smaller feathers, each with a small quill stick- 
ing into the larger quill. Thousands of boys have plowed 
corn week after week without noticing the exquisite 
beauty of the delicate flower on the corn tassel. Too 
many of our boys and girls are growing to manhood and 
womanhood with no power to appreciate the sunset's 
glow, the dewdrop's diamonds, or the storm cloud's flash- 
ing eye and thunderous voice. They cannot see or appre- 

306 



NATURE STUDY 307 

ciate the landscape scene with its gorgeous tints, or enjoy 
the restful quiet of the forest trees. 

Standing in a high school building in a cluster of 
native oaks in the foothills of the Ozarks, an inspiring 
landscape with forest and field and crystal stream, and 
over all the balmy blue of a bright June day, I was sur- 
prised to find that few teachers out of a hundred had ever 
noticed the beauty about them, while a fourth of them 
had been educated in the selfsame building. And to 
think, too, that they were to be the source of inspiration, 
the ones above all others who were to interpret the beau- 
ties of nature to the minds and souls of some thousands 
of children in that county the coming year. If nature 
study did nothing else than to open the child's mind to 
the beauty of nature about him, it would be enough to 
justify it in the school course. 

2. Nature study does not cultivate observation only, 
hut the other powers of mind as well. If properly taught, 
no subject cultivates inductive reasoning more effectively. 
The child is trained to observe the facts and phenomena, 
and from these to reach the reason and laws. Nature 
study should pave j;he way for natural science study later, 
and the inductive study of the sciences is admitted one 
of the best of disciplinary studies. 

J. The facts of nature study are among the most use- 
ful knowledge to pupils in after life. The knowledge of 
plant and animal life learned by children in a well-planned 
nature study course are sources of pleasure and profit. 
Aside from the interest in the study, their minds will 
be stored with useful knowledge. Nature study may 
cover much of what is included in agriculture. In addi- 
tion to learning the names and uses of plants, children 



308 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

may be taught much of the proper cultivation of plants. 
The farmer boy will be interested in why and how plow- 
ing corn makes it grow. He will understand the reason 
why his father wants him to plow close to the little corn, 
and to get farther away at each succeeding plowing. 
He will understand why a single stalk of corn standing 
alone seldom makes a perfect seed ear ; why different 
kinds of corn mix, etc. He will see why potatoes and 
similar plants must be laid by early, and learn numerous 
other facts of a practical nature. 

Among the most glaring defects of nature study may 
be named the following : — 

1. The teacher teaches hooks instead of nature. The 
children read about plants and animals instead of study- 
ing plants and animals. If nature study is to be from 
books and books alone, it is better that other studies take 
its place. The great value of the subject comes from 
bringing the pupils into direct contact with nature. Les- 
sons on the cotton plant to the children of Minnesota may 
be all right as an information lesson, but it is poor nature 
study. A lesson on the Greenland whale may interest 
the Mississippi child, but it cannot be properly called 
nature study. 

2. The lessons in nature study are dry and formal. 
The teacher holds to some set form for fear the pupil will 
ask some question, or become interested in something 
not in the lesson. The lesson plan is reduced to a skele- 
ton, and the pupils are in a formal way trying to fill in 
a few blanks with a little meat. The skeleton outline is 
all right as a guide, but it must be made a living thing to 
the pupils. 



NATURE STUDY 309 

J. There is no system in teaching the subject. Just 
the opposite of the teacher that has every lesson cut and 
dried and knows beforehand just how each pupil must 
fill in each blank to be acceptable, is the teacher who 
makes no systematic preparation for the work. He takes 
up without any planning any lesson that suggests itself. 
He goes off on any tangent suggested by an irrelevant 
question. He scatters everywhere and gets nowhere. 
He talks about this thing to-day, that one to-morrow, 
and something else next week, without leaving anything 
definite in either case. He does not study or plan what 
to present, or how to present it, but trusts to the inspi- 
ration of the moment. 

4. Nature study is not adapted to the place or season. 
December would not be a good month for the study of 
the housefly, nor would June be a good month for the 
study of the snowflake. The pine tree would not be a 
good tree for study in Illinois, nor the beech in Louisiana, 
because they are not common enough. 

In right nature study the teacher selects the objects 
for study carefully. These will be suited to the time and 
place. He studies' these not only at first hand, but seeks 
all the information possible from other sources. He is 
not only full of his subject, but he has the information 
well organized. He is full of interest and inspiration also 
to the class. He secures their interest and incites to 
careful observation. He is ready to seek information 
with the class, and is alive to anything new. 

Note-books are kept, in which the pupils make a rec- 
ord of their observations. These records are made in- 
formally. Pupils are encouraged to make observations 
at home and report them to the class. These suggestions 



310 MANAGEMENT AND METHODS 

may be formulated into lessons in the class, and the habit 
of careful observation and note taking developed. 

In most lessons there should be specimens enough 
for each member of the class, and a few to replace any 
specimen spoiled during the work. In some cases a 
few specimens placed where each can examine them 
will suffice. 

In the lower grades, teach children to observe closely 
flowers and animals. It is strange how many pupils, 
though raised in the country, cannot tell how many toes 
a cat, a dog, or a cow has. Larger pupils are often not 
sure whether a cow's horns are in front or behind her 
ears. Many farmer boys cannot tell how the common 
animals get up or lie down. 

Insects, too, are a source of ever renewed interest to 
the person who observes them. Notice the common house 
fly, how he eats and how cleanly he is. Dust some flour 
on him, and see him clean his body. Notice him under 
a magnifying glass, and the lower part of each leg is a 
brush. Interest children in the study of all kinds of 
common insects. How the cricket and the katydid sing 
will interest them. 

Nothing in nature has the power to interest small 
children so quickly or so intensely as the activities of 
animals — the birds as they fly and sing, fishes as they 
swim, and animals as they move about. Plants and 
flowers, however, have some advantages over animals, 
as they can be studied in all their stages of development. 
They are also more easily obtained and cared for. 
Children are easily interested in growing seeds and un- 
folding flowers if they have a part ownership in them. 
This is a quick way to cultivate a sympathetic interest 



NATURH STUDY 311 

in nature. The feeling of ownership and individual 
risfhts is a wonderful stimulus to children. 

In addition to the study of plants and animals, water, 
air, and sunlight, with their effect upon life, may be 
daily observed and should receive special attention. 

The teacher alive to the importance of nature study 
will overcome all opposition from patrons. He may 
have to educate public sentiment in favor of certain lines 
of work, but he will do it successfully. Nature study 
may be new in the school, and parents and others may not 
appreciate it, but the teacher who really interests the 
pupils and gives them something worth while, will soon 
have the hearty support of all. In farming communities 
he may give more attention to farm products — corn, 
vegetables, fruits, etc. In manufacturing towns he may 
emphasize manufactured articles, as flour, paper, iron, 
or woolen goods. These things will meet with the ap- 
proval of many people who would criticize the study of 
birds and insects. The tactful teacher who understands 
how to teach and who appreciates the value of nature 
study, will not ignore so powerful a force as the pa- 
rent's approval. He will carefully consider in the be- 
ginning what things will be most likely to meet with 
favor or disfavor in his locality. 

A living, growing interest on the teacher's part will 
beget enthusiasm on the pupils' part. When parents 
realize that the children are interested, and that in ad- 
dition to their nature work they are doing better in 
reading, writing, spelling, geography, and other subjects, 
because of their interest in this, the teacher will be per- 
mitted to exercise his judgment in the selection of 
material. His motives will not be questioned, even if a 
few entertain a notion that it is all a fad. 



312 MANAGBMBNT AND METHODS 

Continue the nature study, then, through the grades, 
selecting types which can be studied in their own natural 
environment. Your work, if • properly done, should, 
in addition to its intellectual culture, develop the child's 
higher nature, spiritual, aesthetic, and ethical ; increase 
his happiness by making him better acquainted with his 
physical environment; prepare him better to appreciate 
the beautiful literature which nature has inspired ; in- 
crease his love, sympathy, and interest in all living- 
things; and lift him to higher love of nature and na- 
ture's Author. 



CCT 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS • 



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